Fat Kid Who Loves Food

Slacker no more

2011-06-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

When I rejoined Weight Watchers back in December, I promised myself I would not slack off. I can now add that promise to the pile of broken self-promises. I totally slacked off. I'm currently 1.6 pounds below my highest weight ever, having gained 1.2 pounds last week. But, I am not going to let it get to me. Last night's meeting topic was really interesting and it made me realize that my problem isn't necessarily all the food I eat (it's part of it) but it's my not tracking. I've said it before and will say it again and again... It really is simple. When I track, I lose. When I don't, I gain.

Before the meeting, I bought myself a new 12-week tracking journal, so in addition to tracking online with the Etools program, I will track on paper. This morning, after I finished all my morning work stuff, I sat back, took a break and filled out the 12-week tracker. This got me thinking about an additional tracking accountability method (thanks for filling in the blank word Meagan!). You guys. This blog. I know I haven't been consistent before... okay, EVER, and I'm not going to promise I will be now. I'm hoping to be MORE consistent than I have been, though.

Each week, I will try to transcribe the week's plan from 12-week tracker to blog. Also, any interesting news/food/exercise will also be added. By now, you know I'm not a "take-a-picture-of-my-half-eaten-food" kind of person, but when there is something tasty, I will share it.

Better than I expected

2011-04-19T10:55:00.001-07:00

Weighing in for the first time in eight weeks is hard. Especially when you know you gained. But, with the awesome support of my leader and my friend, I faced the music and stepped on that scale. I was expecting five pounds or more and came in a 4.2. So, yes, a gain. But definitely better than I expected.

This week's topic is tracking. It always seems like whenever I am struggling with a part of the program, the week's topic is that part I am struggling with. We discussed the various ways of tracking -- what works, what doesn't, how to make it work for you. As I was listening to everyone, I started thinking about my journey and how I am able to make it work for me.

When I track, I lose. When I don't track, I gain. It's as simple as that. I've tried many different ways of tracking over the years. Using the three-month tracker, writing everything down; using etools and typing everything into the online tracker; finding any bit of paper to write on if I'm out and don't have my tracker; some combination of the above. What works for me, if tracking online. I used to be really good with the paper trackers, but I just don't have the patience to look things up in a book anymore. I gave my books to my mom. With the release of the WW etools Android app for my phone, it will make tracking on etools much easier.

Last night, my leader also introduce the traveling journal. The traveling journal is a three-month tracker. One member of the group takes it home each week and tracks everything for the week in it. Then someone else takes it the next week. This is good and bad. Good because knowing someone else will have it the next week and every week after you will keep you accountable. People are nosy. They are, of course, going to read your week and know everything you put in your mouth. This same reason is also bad. Do you really want the whole group knowing you stuffed your face with cookies or cake? I know I don't.

So, I think I am going to give it a couple weeks to really get myself back on track before I volunteer to take the tracker home. In the meantime, I am tracking everything I eat on etools and just might post it for you all to see... maybe

And on the eighth week...

2011-04-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

... I started again.

For the first time since my surgery on February 23, I am headed back to a WW meeting. I am finally out of the cast and comfortable enough in the boot to go back and walk bootless to the scale. My hopes aren't high for a loss. In fact, I am predicting at least a five-pound gain. Though, anything over 6.8 pounds will make me cry since that would put me above my start weight.

While I was a stay at home gimp, I didn't track but I didn't eat a ton those first couple of weeks. Mostly because I couldn't move around enough on my own to eat. However, once I realized I could push myself around the house in the rolling desk chair, that all changed. I was able to make myself food and certainly made up for the two weeks of not eating. Still not tracking, I came back to work and attempted to track, only to be in the negative the first day. I tried again last week, and did the same thing. I think part of it was the mentality that "oh, I still have another week to make it up." Which always screws me in the end.

So, knowing I am still not able to fully exercise, tracking is going to be key these next few weeks. I just need to get back into that habit.

When things spiral out of control

2011-04-14T11:29:00.001-07:00

I've been pretty much MIA from a lot of my friends for the past two months. It's been rough. But I'm slowly making my way back and while I do talk to some of them on a daily basis, many of them I seem to only be keeping in touch with on Facebook. And I apologize for that.

Last May, I injured myself playing softball. I stepped on second base wrong and tore a ligament in my ankle. After six months and a myriad of x-rays, a bone scan and my doctor telling me there was nothing wrong, I took a random spill a work at the end of October and my co-ed softball season was finished. Luckily, it was at the end of the season, but still. As one of my co-workers said, "the floor can be deceptively flat." I just happened to be walking back to my desk when my ankle gave out. I hit the ground, hearing a snap, crackle and pop on my way down. I lost all color in my face, almost passed out from the pain and immediately called my doctor, who once again sent me for x-rays. After another set of clear x-rays, I called my health provider and asked for a new doctor. Two weeks later, I had an appointment with the new guy.

I walked (limped) in to the new doctor's office and told him what was going on. He took one look at my ankle said "this isn't right, your ankle should NOT look like that," called the specialist and got me an appointment for that afternoon. At the appointment with the specialist, I learned the ligament was completely torn away from the bone and I would need surgery to fix it. Fast forward to February...

...I now have a new ligament in my ankle. Actually, it's a cadaver tendon (gross) and am on the mend. Initially after surgery, I had a splint and crutches. Then I had an awesome cast and now a boot. I can't point my toes, but I am working on it. I feel like I haven't made progress on rehab and apparently I won't need physical therapy, which baffles me.

Anyway, I was off work from February 23 (surgery day) to April 1. During that time, I laid around watching TV, sleeping, cross stitching, playing on FaceBook. What I didn't do was play around on the Google Group's message board where I knew I could find the friendship and support I so desperately needed during this experience. I sort of fell into a slight depression. Being mostly immobile and in pain is not healthy for the soul. I also ate my face off. I walked into surgery having lost seven pounds from following Weight Watchers. I return on Monday to face the scale. I'm not gonna lie... I am terrified. I know that I've gained. My clothes don't fit right, and I just feel like I have. I'm hoping I haven't undone all the work I did before surgery. But, I think I did. I guess I'll find out on Monday.

Coming out of this post-surgery depression feels good, but it's getting back on track that's the hard part. Changing my eating habits from eating what I wanted, when I wanted is hard enough, but getting back into the groove of tracking is what's hardest. Oh, and staying within my daily points. It may take some time, but I'll get back there.

I also can't wait to get back to the gym. Being a couch potato is not good for me. I need to be active. I need to play softball. Sitting on the sidelines is not something that makes me happy. I do it because I want to be healthy and because I have to. I go to my Tuesday night softball games and play team mom by bringing treats and cheering the team on, but I really want to be out there and it makes me sad that I can't be. I know that I'll be back, soon. But it's really not soon enough.

I know this post wasn't really about food, and maybe that is my problem with being more active with blogging. Maybe I need to make it less about food and more about me with food worked in. I'm not a recipe-posting, perfect-food-photo-taking kind of gal. I like food. I like to eat it, I like to experience it and I like to cook it. Sure, I'll post recipes and photos and such, but I think what's best for me is to use this as an outlet for my struggles losing weight, eating food and finding a balance between it all.

Bake Sale for Japan

2011-04-13T21:48:00.001-07:00

The Sacramento blogger/restaurant online bakes sale for Japan was a success! We raised almost $4,000 and have already donated the money to Shelter Box. In total, 62 items were donated and both my items went for $25.

To view the list of winners, visit Munchie Musings.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this event, who have supported local food bloggers and mostly, who have donated to ANY of the groups raising money to help the victims in Japan.

We interrupt your regularly-scheduled program for this important announcment

2011-03-28T23:49:00.000-07:00

So, it's been almost three months since I've posted. I'm currently in a fight with blogger because I can't seem to upload my own photos for my website revamp. Plus, I had surgery on my ankle and haven't been cooking much.

However, this is not what this post is about. It is about charity.

Unless you live under a rock, you know about the Japan earthquake and tsunami. Well, a bunch of Sacramento bloggers and restaurants have gotten together and are contributing to an online bake sale/auction with all proceeds going to the Japanese relief fund. Bidding will take place April 1-2. For more information visit www.munchiemusings.com.

I will update once the items are posted and bidding opens. Please think about bidding.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T13:02:00.000-08:00

Most people make resolutions on January 1 and by the time January 31 comes, those resolutions are already broken. I no longer make resolutions because I am one of those people who breaks the resolutions by the end of the first month. Take this blog, for example. Last year's resolution was to blog every day. Clearly, that did not happen. Also, last year, I swore I would weigh less on December 31, than I did on January 1. That didn't happen, either. In fact, I weigh about 15 pounds more. Another resolution was to do 210 workouts in 2010. Again, that didn't happen. I was on the right track, until my ankle injury sidelined me.

So, this year, I resolve to not make any resolutions, but to make changes. Changes that will benefit my health, wealth and happiness.

Health

1) Remain committed to Weight Watchers. I've done alright, so far, but these past two weeks have just killed me. I'm nervous to go to weigh in, tomorrow, but have committed to going 16 weeks in a row.

2) Exercise more. Regardless of my ankle injury and upcoming surgery, I can still pull out the Wii Fit and play some of those games. And brave to cold and go swimming.

3) Eat better. I'll admit, I've been really lazy lately, not cooking or bringing my lunches to work. When I get lazy, I eat crap.

Wealth

1) Save money. I honestly have no idea where all my money goes. One way to help figure that out is to create a mint.com account and track that way. Then, I will see where my money is going and will be able to save better.

Happiness

1) Not let the little things bother me. I tend to get over emotional about things and it escalates to a major freak out.

2) Not let myself get so annoyed with the stupid things people do. I have no patience for people who do stupid things or have no common sense.

Do you have any "New Year changes?"

Dexter Sunday: Beef with red wine sauce

2010-12-07T21:39:00.000-08:00

After the Halloween pizza dinner, I felt like I had to make up for a no effort dinner by making something fabulous. I perused various cookbooks and blogs and finally settled on Lauren's Porcini Dusted Ribeye. I modified it a bit to account for the picky eaters.

First lesson I learned, when at the Safeway meat counter, just ask for a one-pound ribeye. Don't ask them to cut it into four pieces. I made the mistake of doing that and after being spoken to like I was an idiot, I walked away with two pre-packaged pounds, already cut into four pieces. Two in each package. They were flat and wide. I wanted compact and thick... yeah, yeah. I know. That's what she said.

Second lesson, the gravy I made needs to be thicker. It was delicious made with some red wine, the oils and bits from the pan I cooked the meat in, but I now know I need to thicken it. It was delicious and I always follow the recipe as exactly as I can, the first time. Subsequent times, I will adjust to my taste and preferences and I like my gravy a bit thicker.

Tess, Jami and I had a two-episode night, so we ate dinner between episodes. We sat down to the rib eye, salad and fresh sourdough bread and butter and talked about our weeks, upcoming plans and life in general. I love these girls. We talk about anything and everything, have healthy debates about our ideals and help each other out.

Dessert was chocolate chip cookies and we sat on the couch to munch. It was a fabulous evening with some great ladies!

Thank you to Lauren from Healthy Delicious for the recipe!

Foodbuzz Festival Fun

2010-11-30T21:24:00.000-08:00

Say that five times fast...

The start of November brought bloggers from all over the United States (and some from other countries) to San Francisco for the Second Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival. It was wonderful seeing friends I made last year and making new friends this year. Lauren arrived on Thursday evening and we headed into San Francisco early Friday to take a Food and Fortunes tour of San Francisco. So not a food tour. The food portion was made up of tastes from a couple vendors in the Ferry Building. Something we could have asked for ourselves. We had one drink in a bar in the Financial District and then walked to Yerba Buena Gardens. It was long and ant one point, when we walked right past the hotel, Lauren and I wondered if we could just ditch and go back tot he hotel. However, because there were only four of us on the tour, I'm pretty sure our absence would have been noticed.

Since it was after the election, I was able to take a couple days off to attend and also hang out with Lauren for an extra day. The festival was fun and I was so lucky to hang out with Andrea and Jeff of High/Low/Food/Drink, Jesse of Beer and Nosh and many others.

Since there is so much to recap and so little time, here are some photos that will hopefully summarize the festival.

Dexter Sunday: Halloween

2010-11-30T20:39:00.000-08:00

One would think that a Dexter Halloween would bring lots of blood and gore to the Dexter-watching party. It however, did not. Jami took her son (and my god son) Nathan trick-or-treating at Ikea and then here to my house. I might be biased, but I'm pretty sure Nathan was the cutest Spiderman EVER. Don't you agree?

Because Jami was enjoying the first real trick-or-treating time with Nathan, we started Dexter Sunday at 7:30 and instead of making a big, elaborate dinner, just ordered pizza. We ordered from Pizza Guys and got two pizzas - one linguicia and olive and one pepperoni and sausage. Dessert was vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and M&Ms.

Dexter Sunday: It's a Dexter Birthday!

2010-11-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

First off, I know I'm two weeks behind. Work has been nuts and I've been exhausted. I've also been eating my face off. But more on that later. On to Dexter...

Two weeks ago, October 24, was BFF and fellow Dexter fan, Jami's birthday. Tess and I decided to Dexter theme her birthday and took care of dinner and dessert. The true Italian she is, one of Jami's favorite meals is chicken parmesean. So, that's what I did.

After a long weekend of hanging with the 'rents in the Bay Area, attending a baby shower and watching the SF Giants win the National League Championship Series and more to the World Series, I made my way back to Sacramento Sunday afternoon. After a quick defrost of the chicken breast (fresh from the meat counter at Safeway), I cracked and separated a couple of eggs, mixed with some milk and coated the breasts in panko crumbs. I spread a layer of marinara on the bottom of a baking dish, plopped the coated chicken in the dish and covered with more marinara and shredded parmesean cheese. Bake at 350 about 30 minutes or until cooked through and you have a tasty Italian dinner.

(Disclaimer... timing could be off. My oven sucks and I have to cook everything twice as long, so I have to guess as to what the time would be normally.)

We added some garlic bread and salad and we were good to go.

As per our usual plan, halfway though the second episode of Dexter (yes, we skipped another week) we paused the DVR and had dessert. Because it was Jami's birthday, Tess made a giant Dexter cupcake. One layer white cake, the other chocolate with a cream cheese frosting with blood drippings. As gruesome as it looked, it was delicious.

Happy birthday, Jami! I'm so glad I was able to celebrate with you!

FoodBuzz and Fresh Express: Turkey and Bacon Ranch Wontons

2010-10-16T18:23:00.000-07:00

As part of the FoodB uzz Tastemaker Program, FoodBuzz has partnered with Fresh Express salad mixes and offered a scholarship to the upcoming FoodBuzz Festival in San Francisco. When presented with the opportunity, I signed up for and received 12 coupons for Fresh Express salad mixes.

I am a huge fan of Fresh Express, having been using their mixes and bags of baby spinach for quite a while. In fact, the baby spinach is my go-to for a veggie when I'm making a tasty dinner.

After thinking about what I could make, I had an idea, but had to check with my mom, first. I know how that sounds. But for many years, my mom has been making these little wontons with Italian sausage, spinach, cheese and ranch dressing. I didn't want to give out a "secret family recipe." Plus, my mom has taught me just about everything I know about cooking. Over the years, I have made the recipe my own, substituting the sausage for ground turkey and using light ranch dressing and fat free cheeses. So, after kicking around some ideas, I came up with some additional modifications to my usual, tried and true recipe.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey

1 6 ounce bag of Fresh Express Baby Spinach

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

6 ounces reduced fat feta cheese

12 ounces bacon ranch dressing

3 ounces real bacon bits

Square wonton wrappers

salt

white pepper

cumin

Directions:

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Brown turkey in a pan with salt, pepper and cumin (to taste). Once browned, drain and set aside to cool. Finely chop spinach. In a large bowl, add spinach, bacon bits, cheeses and cooled turkey. Mix ingredients and add dressing in two parts. Mix well. Spoon two teaspoons on the mixture into center of wonton wrapper. Roll wrapper up, closing both ends and place seam side down on baking sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Dexter Sunday: Enchiladas and "Bloody Ritas"

2010-10-15T15:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay on this post. I know the next episode of Dexter is in just two days (how are we already at episode four already?) and I haven't posted last week's dinner.

Last week was a double-watcher. For week two, Jami and I were busy doing our philanthropic duty and volunteering at Blues for Life, a benefit for breast cancer hosted by Albie Aware. This event, held annually at the Torch Cub featured local Sacramento bands and a celebrity pasta cook off featuring some of Sacramento's fabulous restaurants paired with a local celebrity. These celebrities were mostly local television and radio personalities.

Anyway, on to Dexter. I promise not to give away any spoilers, but to really give you the effect of the evening, I'm going to have to give away the ending of season four. Which, yes, I know is a HUGE spoiler, so if you haven't seen it, yet... STOP READING!

Have you stopped reading? Don't blame me if you keep reading and have it spoiled. Don't say I didn't warn you.

For those of you still reading, Tess, Jami and I chose enchiladas with red sauce, Spanish rice and strawberry margaritas for our meal. We renamed the margaritas to "Bloody Ritas" in honor (or in memory) of the horrific murder of Dexter's wife Rita by the Trinity Killer. Now, Jami wasn't too sad about that because she really dislikes Julie Benz, the actress who played Rita. This dislike stems from the many years of watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

But I digress...

Tess made the enchiladas, while I was responsible for the Spanish rice and bloody ritas and Jami once again, brought dessert. Last week, Jami told me she had purchased something at WalMart that was appropriate for Dexter Sundays. So, along with her New York cheesecake, she brought a "blood bag" filled with red "candy." The candy was nothing more than a simple syrup dyed red and given a cherry flavor. But it looked like something you would see hanging from an IV at the hospital.

After watching episode two, drinking our 'ritas and munching on chips and salsa, we warmed the enchiladas, made the rice and sat down to a tasty meal. The enchiladas and red sauce were the perfect size and filled with chicken and cheese, with a sprinkling of cheese melted on top. The Spanish rice was nice and flavorful and cooked perfectly. The margaritas, which were strawberry-lime flavored, were not exactly red, but more of a light pink... something like you see brains look like in movies (even though, according to Tess and her vast knowledge about brains (?), brains are normally grayish in color). Halfway through the third episode, we broke into the cheesecake and made the blood bag drip onto our dessert. Finishing the episode, we briefly discussed upcoming Dexter Sundays and Jami has been given a project. For now, you're going to have to wait to see exactly what it is. But trust me... it's pretty awesome.

I have a new computer!

2010-10-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday, after work, I drove myself to Best Buy and bought a new computer. Why is this important? Because it means I can blog more AND sit on the couch. One of my excuses was because after sitting at a desk all day, I didn't want to come home and sit on the computer, at another desk for a while. Also, I write as my job. Do I really want to come home and write more? Well, the answer to that is yes. This kind of writing is fun. It's relaxing, it's entertaining.

Anyway, on to other topics. A few weeks ago, a friend sent me a link to try the new Kashi breakfast bars. Today, I received in the mail my strawberry bar. Of course I had to taste it right away and OMG... it's soooo good. Nice, chewy and moist (I really hate that word).

Each bar is 110 calories of goodness. With three grams of fat and fiber and two grams of protein, this bar is a good grab and go snack.

Printed on the inside of the triangular box is a coupon for $1.00 off your purchase of a box. I am so picking up a box of these tasty bars when I go to the market to restock the fridge and pantry this weekend.

What is your favorite breakfast bar?

It's a new month

2010-10-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

Well, it's officially fall and has been for about a week, now. One fourth of 2010 is left. I've been doing a lot of thinking about where I am and where I want to be by 2011.

Do I really want to start 2011 as unhealthy and overweight as I am now?
Do I want to feel as out of shape (in this case, round is not a shape) as I did last night after playing two softball games?
Am I happy with myself? With how I see myself when I look in the mirror?

In answering these questions, I've realized that I have been half-assing it for the last few months. My injury totally messed with my routine. No gym, no softball, no NOTHING! Sure, I could have gone to the gym and done upper body stuff, but we all know cardio is where it's at. What was I going to do? Do a handstand and run on the treadmill? I can barely even do a somersault, anymore.

So, I've told myself I will not be lazy. I will go back to the gym. I will eat healthier. I will lose this damn weight.

Sometimes, I wonder the same thing...

2010-09-30T11:16:00.001-07:00

But would NEVER write to "Dear Abby" for an answer:

(Copied from today's Dear Abby column)

DEAR ABBY: In this age of electronic devices, how appropriate is it to take photos at the table in a restaurant? I suppose it depends on the establishment -- probably not a problem in a casual buffet environment.

My boyfriend and I like to go to fancy restaurants (on our own and with friends), and we enjoy taking pictures of each other, our friends and the food. How do we handle this? Do other patrons care how many times we "flash" our cameras? -- SNAP-HAPPY IN BLOOMINGTON, IND.

DEAR SNAP-HAPPY: When making reservations at an expensive restaurant, ask whether it would be disruptive to take pictures. While some diners might not object, I can think of several reasons why some would find it intrusive. Because some "foodies" enjoy snapping photos of their table and the various dishes as they're presented, it may be possible to be seated in a location where the flash will not be a nuisance. However, the restaurant staff should be warned in advance.

Dexter Sunday: The Introduction and Opening Credits

2010-09-29T11:26:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the new FKWLF feature: Dexter Sunday!

I am addicted to the show Dexter. I'm sure you've all heard about it, but for those who live under a rock and have no idea what I am talking about, it is a television show on Sunday nights on Showtime. I first started watching it when I got Netflix, last year. I'd heard so much about it, but didn't have Showtime. So, I got the first two seasons on DVD (season three wasn't out, yet and season four hadn't aired). I was immediately addicted and couldn't get enough.

What is Dexter Sunday? When I heard season five was starting last Sunday, I immediately bumped seasons three and four to the top of my Netflix list and contacted my fellow Dexter fans to plan for a viewing party. From there, it morphed into what will be a weekly event at my house. Dexter Sundays.

Three days ago, the Dexter season five premiere was upon us. Jami and Tess came over and we held a mini Dexter-a-thon to finish watching the rest of season four. Without spoiling it for those who haven't yet watched, HOLY CRAP!

When planning Dexter Sundays, we decided that each week, we would have a red-themed meal. Red being the color of blood. For our first Dexter Sunday meal, we decided to adapt the meal from the opening credits of the show. Fried eggs, ham, blood oranges and coffee. So, Sunday morning, I spent 20 minutes on hold with Whole Foods trying to find out if they had blood oranges. After finding out they did not, I went to the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op and Trader Joe's. Guess what... blood oranges aren't in season in California until November. So, I chose the next best thing. Ruby Red grapefruit.

Tess called a while later and said she found blood oranges at Corti Brothers because they came from Australia. Well, la-di-da Australians. You and your upside-down seasons. But thank you for having blood oranges.

As we begin dinner, Tess started slicing and squeezing the oranges for juice. Until we realized it would take her forever to squeeze enough fresh juice for three glasses. So, we made blood orange mimosas. After Tess murdered the oranges, the three of us sat down to a tasty breakfast-at-dinner.

After dinner, we watched the premiere, enjoying cupcakes and cinnamon rolls for dessert. After a brief discussion of the episode, Jami, Tess and I began planning the next dinner. Which is in two weeks because Jami and I are not available next week.

Don't you hate it when...

2010-09-21T11:53:00.001-07:00

...you go out of town for a weekend and come home to a totally crashed computer?

Yeah, that happened to me over Labor Day weekend. I'm not exactly sure what happened and we still haven't fixed it, but my computer crashed and I'm pretty sure I've lost all my photos. ALL. MY. PHOTOS. More than 1,000 photos of family, friends, food, events, vacations, parties... gone. I know I should have put them on an external hard drive or jump drive, and I really was planning on copying them all to Snapfish so they DIDN'T get lost, I just hadn't had the time yet.

Don't you hate it when...

...you are doing so well with weight loss and at some point it allll goes horrible wrong?

Me too. I braved the scale last night and saw a number I haven't seen in two years. One which makes me two pounds less than my highest weight ever. EVER.

Don't you hate it when...

...you have all these grand plans for menu planning, cooking, baking and creating and one component of the plan (in my case, the oven not holding its temperature) goes wrong?

All summer, I've been wanting to create and cook. But with a bad oven, things bake unevenly and take two to three times as long as normal to cook. So, I've given up. I've mentioned it to my landlady three or four times and the over still isn't fixed. It would be nice to have a working oven, again.

Don't you hate it when...

...you can't seem to get back on track?

I'm working on it. Really, I am. I promise.

We are the champions... well, not me, but I'm getting there

2010-08-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

My team the Luck Dragons won the championship on Tuesday night. Okay, so it's D-League, co-ed softball and the Fall season starts up right away. But we won. It was the morale boost we needed to get ourselves back in a winning frame of mind.

I did not play. I am still injured. Sort of. I feel like I could get out there and play, but I don't want to risk injuring myself even worse. So, I'm still wearing the boot. And eating my face off.

Actually, as of late, I have done much better with my eating. I've decided to try a new approach. Not obsess about what I'm eating, counting calories, points or anything else. I'm making healthier decisions, watching my portions and drinking TONS of liquids. Of the 10 pounds I've gained since May (thanks, ankle), I've lost four of them. In the past two weeks. When it comes to weight loss, I'm smiling again. Something is working. I would like to thank my friend Meagan over at Meagan Gets Her MRS for the inspiration to try this new way. She's getting married in three weeks and has been such an inspiration to me, lately. She also has a food blog, which is pretty great. Check her out at Meagan and her Menu!

How has your summer been? Have you made any changes to your eating routine? What works or doesn't work for you?

Pity Party --- Table for One

2010-07-16T15:45:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has ever had an injury knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Having played sports my whole life, I can't count the number of times I've had casts on my arms and legs. It started in kindergarten when I fell off the monkey bars during recess and broke my arm. Over the years, there have been sprained ankles, a broken nose, broken and sprained fingers, a torn ACL, bumps, bruises, cuts and scrapes. I swear I wasn't an abused child. My parents allowed my brother and I to play pretty much any sport we desired and while basketball and softball were my chosen sports, I was never one to pass up a fun afternoon of climbing trees, wrestling with the boys in the neighborhood or riding my bike so fast, I'd practically fall off.

Two months ago, during my Tuesday night D-League Coed softball game (Hi Luck Dragons!!), I went to make a play at second base and got hurt. I mentioned the injury to a teammate, but sucked it up and finished the game. I even played on my Thursday night team AND had a session with Josh at the gym on Friday. By Sunday, I could barely walk. Monday, I emailed the doctor, who told me to go have xrays and get a boot. Seven weeks later, it hurts worse than it originally did.

But I digress... for the past two months, I have been of the mind that even though I haven't done a lick of exercise, I can still eat as much as I would normally eat. Notsomuch. I've gained about five pounds. In the grand scheme of life, gaining five pounds in a period of two months isn't THAT bad, but when you have as difficult a time losing weight as I do, you get frustrated and annoyed.

I'm having a tough time getting my eating under control and at times wonder if maybe not avoiding a softball and letting it hit me square in the face so my jaw is wired shut isn't such a bad idea after all! Although, if that happened, I'd probably still figure out a way to gain weight.

This past week, I had a plan. A good plan. I had every meal planned out for the whole week. I knew what I was eating when, how many WW points it all added up to be and just knew I was going to lose weight. Monday and Tuesday were great. By Wednesday, I was getting a little sick of hard-boiled eggs and oatmeal for breakfast, but I powered through and ate it anyway. Didn't cook dinner that night. Thursday, decided I was going to buy breakfast and lunch, didn't make dinner. Today is Friday, I brought my lunch, ate half of it and have snacked on frozen yogurt and cheez-its (not at the same time). I'm also going to the movies tonight.

I need to get back on track.

How do you deal with injuries derailing your exercising?

I have an obsession...

2010-07-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

... and its name is Cheeto.

I remember it like it was yesterday -- sitting in the car with my brother, headed to a friend's house to watch the season premiere of the final season of LOST. Brother wanted to stop and grab a snack, so he ran into the corner market and came out with two diet Pepsis and a bag of cheddar jalapeno Cheetos. Normally, I'm not a fan of jalapenos. Not because they are too hot, but because I'm a big texture person and for some reason, I don't like how they feel in my mouth (twss).

In this instance, though, I was hungry and the bro kept telling me how great they are. So, I tried one. And then died and went to Cheeto heaven. I have now banned cheddar jalapeno Cheetos from my house. I will buy a bag and eat the whole thing in one sitting. They are that delicious. And no, it is not possible to eat one serving. I've tried and failed.

Recently, I was at Sam's Club with BFF and as we meandered through the aisles, I saw the box of single serving chips (remember those? What you'd get in your lunch box?) and there was a variety pack of Flaming Hot Cheetos, Cheddar Jalapeno, Spicy Ruffles and one other kind of chip. As I went to put the box in the cart, I realized the only ones I would eat would be the Cheddar Jalapeno Cheetos, and I'd have to figure out a way to hide them from my brother who would also only eat those. I could open the box and leave them in the car to take to work, I could hide them on the waaaay top shelf of the pantry, or I could suck it up and share. I ultimately decided not to buy them. Mostly because I didn't want to share. This is an obsession I am not sure I can get over. It is also one that can -- and just might -- derail my weight loss.

What kinds of snack foods are you obsessed with? Can you have them in your house?

Mmmm, hamburgers

2010-06-20T17:49:00.000-07:00

I love hamburgers. If given the choice and if my arteries would allow for it, I would eat a big, juicy, cheesy burger every day. Unfortunately for me (and if not for the fact that I'm a little afraid of what my trainer would do to me if I ate a burger every day), this is not an experiment I am willing to try. I will however tell you about some of my favorite burgers.

First and foremost, I am an In'N'Out fan. There is nothing better than a double-double, animal-style with fries and a thick chocolate milkshake. That order is reserved for special occasions. Like when LK from Healthy Delicious visited last November. Or when Heather visited three years ago. My "usual" is a double-double with ketchup, mustard and pickles only, fries and a root beer or diet Coke. Oh and CHEESE PAPER!

I will admit, I do eat McDonald's and Burger King a lot more than I probably should. And Burger King's $1.00 double cheese burgers are hard to resist, with their tasty flame-broiled goodness. From time to time (and I promise, I'm trying to break the habit) I enjoy a juicy double quarter-pounder with cheese from McDonald's.

As for non-fast food burgers, if you are from, live in the Sacramento area or have watched Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, you know about the Squeeze Inn. If you are from Sacramento, you have probably also heard the ridiculousness that caused Squeeze Inn to relocate. I have not yet been to the new location, but as long as the burgers still taste the same and still have a cheese skirt, I will be one happy camper.

As for sit-down restaurant burgers, I enjoy a turkey burger from Burgers and Brew. A new(ish) place on R Street in midtown, Burgers and Brew has a variety of burgers to choose from. There's the classic hamburger, with or without cheese, a chili cheese burger, turkey burger, buffalo burger (which I'm still talking myself into trying) and for those who don't eat meat, there is a garden burger, a tofu burger or a portobello burger. Oh yeah, and there's also regular sandwiches and salads. Burgers and Brew is in a good location, too. Working near the Capitol, it's tough to "cross the invisible line of N Street" and wander to K Street at lunch time. Burgers and Brew allows those of us who would love to socialize with all our Capitol friends, but don't have the extra 20-30 minutes it takes to do such socializing (on a smaller scale) a place to gather, have a burger (and a brew, if you are so inclined to drink your lunch), sit outside on a sunny and warm day and enjoy the peacefulness of getting away from the Capitol.

For those of you who actually DO cross the N Street line, there's Hamburger Patties. Which used to be Hamburger Mary's (you can still sort of see the outline of the lettering on the sign). I'm still not even sure why the name was changed, just heard some rumors about fights, the Hamburger Mary corporate office not liking something... I don't know. And quiet honestly, I really don't care. They have good burgers. All kinds of different toppings. I haven't mustered (HA! Get it?... mustered/mustard...) up the courage to try the burger that has peanut butter on top, but I hear it's fabulous. Maybe one day.

When I'm being lazy, I like to call Ink. One Wednesday through Saturday (after 9:00 p.m.), Ink will deliver me a juicy burger. Or mac and cheese... or both. Yes, I know Ink is four blocks from my house. But it's dark outside. And I'm being lazy. Besides, the dude that delivers me my burger is on a bicycle. And for some reason, that entertains me to no end.

Cafe Bernardo also has a really good turkey burger. I get that a lot when I'm hanging at Monkey Bar during happy hour. Plus, they give me pickles. I also love pickles.

I could go on and on about my love for burgers and even talk about my home made burgers and the failed Martha Stewart stuffed burger where I followed the directions TO THE LETTER, only to end up forgetting to spray the grill and having the burgers stick, which then meant they completely fell apart and we had to eat them with a fork ('member Dre?), but the food critic for the Sacramento Bee says it best in a recent article. It is what inspired me to write this post.

What is your favorite local burger joint?

The great lasagna debate of the New York Governor's race

2010-06-17T15:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I received an email from a friend pointing me in the direction of a New York Daily News story about New York gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo's girl (lady) friend, Food Network's Sandra Lee. Apparently, there is unrest in the Cuomo household with former First Lady Matilda "Mama" Cuomo and Sandra "Semi-Homemade" Lee facing off about the proper way to make a lasagna. Candidate Cuomo has taken the position most smart politicians take when asked an opinion. "On this issue I'm going to be very, very careful." I mean, come on Andrew. You are Italian for God sakes! Admit you like your mama's lasagna better. I guarantee you, more people like your mother than your girl friend. Oh and FYI, Andrew... tomato soup is not "tomato sauce, but in a different form."

Let's break down the "Semi-Homemade" queen's dish...

She uses your basic ingredients -- salt, ground beef, lasagna noodles, mozzarella cheese.

But what about sauce and ricotta, you say? Well, apparently, two major staples of a properly made lasagna are not included. Instead, she uses cottage cheese and tomato soup.

Yes... you read that right cottage cheese and tomato soup.

Adding the CAN of tomato soup and apple cider vinegar to the browned and drained beef constitutes a "sauce."

After layering the noodles, cottage cheese, "sauce" and mozzarella three times, chefs are told to bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

If that's how you want to make a lasagna, fine. Just don't date the possible next governor of New York, who comes from one of New York's elite ITALIAN families and call that lasagna.

According to the NY Daily News, "Mama Cuomo prefers a more traditional lasagna: fresh ricotta cheese, Italian parsley and other herbs, and Parmesan cheese, she said. And her red sauce, no doubt, shares little with a store-bought can of soup."

Mama Cuomo, however, has a theory as to why her son might eat "Semi-Homemade Sandra's lasagna: "You know, maybe she puts cottage cheese because he doesn't want to put on weight, because he's watching his diet, but that's not the way you make a lasagna."

How do you make lasagna? Would you ever consider the "Semi-Homemade" way? Or are you in Mama Cuomo's camp?

Blogging Hiatus

2010-06-04T14:30:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I know I haven't posted in about two months. I sincerely apologize.

Since I work in elections, I have been extremely busy lately and when I get home, I just don't want to sit at the computer any longer. I've been spending my time vegging on the couch or in my room watching TV and pretty much eating my face off.

Also, for the past two weeks, our Internet has been spotty at best and after fighting with ATT for about a week, I've finally got it figured out and Internet should be back up and running smoothly by Monday.

There's a lot to catch you all up on, posts that have been drafted, edited and are almost ready to publish, and injuries to report on. Once the 'net is back up at home and this election is over, I will be around more and wanting to sit in front of the computer and blog more.

Until then, thank you for your patience and don't forget to vote on Tuesday, June 8. Polls are open from 7am to 8pm.

Chocolate Overload

2010-04-07T13:53:00.000-07:00

I made the mistake of grabbing my (very small) bag of Easter candy out of the car on my way into the office this morning. It's now almost 2pm and it's all gone.

Yeah...

One Sees Candy Peanut Butter and Chocolate Egg which is THREE servings for that tiny little effer... 14 points. Hello, breakfast!

Three Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs after lunch... 8 points.

That totals 22 points in chocolate. I get 28 points per day. Add in what I actually ate for lunch (seven points) and I'm one over for the day. After my disastrous day yesterday (I don't even want to ADMIT what I ate) I have two of my 35 extra points left for the week and four activity points to spend.

I will be at the gym tonight for more than an hour and will earn at least eight activity points, but it still doesn't make up for the fact that I overloaded on chocolate today.

The bright side... I tracked it all.

Funny Shrimp Story

2010-04-06T13:45:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking about my friend who is a chef and I realized that I never told my funny story about my adventure in deveining some shrimp I made a while back.

A couple of months ago I decided I was going to make a shrimp dinner... sauteed shrimp on a bed of spinach with a garlic and lemon butter sauce. It was fabulous and yet, as usual, I didn't take any pictures (REALLY have to remember to do that!).

So, I get out the shrimp (frozen, because unfortunately the fish counter at Safeway only had the little shrimp left and no big ones) and realize I grabbed a bag of uncooked, unpeeled and veined shrimp. Step one of the process... peeling and deveining.

I put the shrimp in an ice water bath to thaw them and began peeling. For the life of me, I couldn't remember how to properly devein them. I stood there for a minute staring at the little suckers and thought to myself "oh crap I'm going to have to call M and ask him how to do it again." Now, my friend would gladly help me, after a bit of teasing, of course.

After about five minutes of staring at the paring knife in my left hand and the peeled shrimp in my right hand, it clicked and I suddenly remembered to slice, hook and pull. After that, it took about five minutes to finish getting the shrimp ready to cook.

After we finished eating at about 9pm, I realized it was probably a good thing I didn't call M for help since at that time, he lived in Washington, D.C. and it was three hours later there. Calling him at 11:30pm probably wouldn't have been the best idea. Not that he wouldn't have been up, but chances are, I would have woken his wife (who has been ill) and his 4 year-old son. And that would have made him cranky.

Soon after I finished eating, I was talking to M and mentioned how I almost called him for help. What follows is a cut and paste of our actual Gchat conversation:

me: I almost called you tonight for shrimp deveining advice

But I got it

M: LOL

me: Stupid shrimp

Lol

M: Did you put them in ice water first?

me: Yes

M: good girl.

me: K laughed at me when I said I needed you to come work your magic and do it for me

M: I would have told you to use a pairing knife and run the knife down the length of the shrimp (backside up)

then remove the vein with your finger.

and you would have said ewww my finger?

me: you know me so well

M: and I would tell you to go out for shrimp!

me: Haha

I wanted to make them. I peeled and deveined them all by myself

M: Were they good?

me: And made garlic lemon butter

And spinach.

Yes, it was a really good dinner. One of my better ones.

See, I paid attention when you talked

M: amazing!

What makes it even funnier (at least to me, you guys are probably thinking "this is a lame story...") is that when he used to live in California, I would tell him I was making dinner and call him for some tips or recipe ideas. Even though I didn't need them. I was really calling because I knew that if I asked enough questions, he'd tell me to stop cooking, come over and cook an amazing gourmet meal in half the time it would have taken me to cook a simple meal. I think old habits die hard and I really made the whole project harder because I really wanted him to come cook for me again.

I really need to start coming up with more "stupid" questions for him since he's back in California (or will be very soon) and the more questions I ask, the better chance, he'll just do it.

Weight Watchers Week Seven Update

2010-04-06T10:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, so after seven weeks on Weight Watchers and an over all gain of .8 pounds, I'm FINALLY getting the hang of this.

The program stresses tracking as a key component. Oh how right they are.

Here's the recap of my tracking suckiness:

Week One: Tracked every single thing I ate - Lost 3.2 pounds
Week Two: Tracked four of the seven days - Gained .4 pounds
Week Three: Tracked thee days (got the flu) - Lost .2 pounds
Week Four: Still sick, tracked one day - skipped weigh in
Week Five: Tracked one day - Gained (over a two week period) 4.8 pounds
Week Six: Did not track - Lost .6 pounds
Week Seven: Did not track - Lost .2 pounds

Okay, so I did lose by not tracking a couple of weeks, but I think that was pretty much just luck. I've been exercising more, now that softball has started and not been eating as much. If you look at week one, where I tracked every thing, you'll see it was my biggest loss.

What's really upsetting is that I'm ABOVE my start weight. That 4.8-pound gain really threw me off track. I'm slowly chipping away at it, but it completely erased my loss AND put me over my start weight.

I spent some time at Safeway the other day and spent $150 on groceries. Eating healthier is so much more expensive. I bought strawberries and grapes which are two of my favorite fruits and I can't wait to scarf them down.

My goal this week is to pack my lunch at least three days and track every day. You know what "they" say... baby steps.

I've kind of been sucking, lately

2010-03-20T17:45:00.000-07:00

So, after a pretty good start with weight watchers, I've starting falling back into old habits. Not tracking, not really caring and figuring, I'll make up for it, next week. Whatever it is that is in my brain that causes that to happen needs to stop. It's annoying and stupid and I know I can do it. I just get frustrated.

Having been sick last week and not going to the gym regularly for the past few weeks, it's been tough for me to make myself stay on track. My car has been in the shop, I've had things going on, whatever the reason (excuse), I'm stopping that now. Daylight Saving Time is back, which means I am more motivated now that it's light out longer, there's no reason to not go to the gym (not that there was any good reason during the winter) and softball has finally started.

As I type this, I am sitting at my parents' house, while they play cards with my grandparents. Mom made dinner, a belated St. Patrick's Day dinner of corned beef and cabbage. In addition to the corned beef, potatoes and carrots I ate at dinner, I've eaten chips and dip, a couple of my grandmother's deviled eggs, two glasses of champagne and some Cheetos. Clearly above my 27 points per day that I am allowed. Knowing me, I won't track it. There's got to be a better way to get me to track. Something to help me remember. I forget. I start off really well, and then fizzle.

What kinds of things to you do to help you remember to track? What tools, tips and tricks are out there?

My Weight Watchers Journey, So Far

2010-03-08T15:04:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been three weeks. I'm getting the hang of counting points again, but still need to work on actually tracking everything. After tracking religiously the first week, I slacked off on week two and gained. Lesson learned... TRACK! I tracked most of the week last week, so I guess I will find out tonight how I did and how much it paid off.

Another thing is that because I'm sharing my car with my brother right now, it's been a little more difficult for me to get to the gym. I made it there Friday and despite a migraine, I ran 1.57 miles in a little over 25 minutes. Luckily, softball starts tomorrow (you can catch up on all the adventures of the Luck Dragons by reading our blog). I'm also looking forward to my Thursday night softball team to start up again. That should be in the next couple weeks (we don't have a blog). I also went to Pipeworks (a rock wall climbing gym) for a Junior League training. I haven't climbed in a really long time. I did it a few times in high school with some friends, but since then, I haven't been. As someone who isn't the biggest fan of heights, attaching me to a rope and a harness wasn't the best idea, but I found that if I just concentrated on what I was doing, I was fine. Until I had to get back down.

Getting back down to the floor was the most terrifying part. At least the first time. A person has to have enormous trust in the person down below, because really, your survival is in their hands. Once I sat back, grabbed hold of the rope and was lowered down, I stopped shaking and was ready to go again.

I am a bit sore. My arms, mostly. I can certainly feel it in my triceps and a little in my biceps. Although, I'm sure I would feel it a lot more if I haven't spent the last year with the trainer.

Anyway, back to the original topic of this post. I go tonight at 6:30 p.m. and will find out what this week's result is. I'll admit, I cheated a little bit and stepped on the scale and saw myself down three pounds. But, I did that last week and ended up gaining. So, I'm not counting on that. I'm trying not to step on the scale everyday, but it's hard! I should put it away or hide it, or something.

Are you an every day weigher, or do you resist?

The New Adventures of My New BFF Cat Cora and Me

2010-03-04T22:17:00.000-08:00

Yes, you read that right... Iron Chef Cat Cora and I are now BFFs. She cooked for me, we were photographed together. It's a friendship for the ages.

In the reality that is NOT my brain, Cat Cora visited the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts today as part of Maria Shriver's Women's Day events.

Let me tell you how much I love Cat Cora. Her Iron Chef episodes are the ONLY ones I watch. Sure, I have some love for Iron Chefs Batali, Flay and Morimoto. But really... there are only some many ways you can have Italian-insipred (Batali), grilled with chipotle (Flay) or Asian-inspired meals (Morimoto). The food Cat Cora cooks is creative and fun! She's always different and everything always looks so delicious. Never boring, never overly involved or difficult and never the same.

Cat's cooking demonstration (yes, Cat and I are on a first name basis) was supposed to start at 11:30 a.m. and when my coworker Tess and I got to the Museum 10 minutes early (!) she had already started. The audience was five to six people deep, so I couldn't get close up or good pics of what she was actually doing. I did, however, turn my camera on, stick my arm up to the heavens and start snapping away. I got a few good ones...

The recipe she made was the recipe on the cover of her cookbook Cooking from the Hip, Pork Skewers with Avocado Tzatziki. The only difference was that she used chicken instead of pork. Now, I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of avocado. In fact, it comes a close second to my hatred of tomatoes. However, I tasted this (there were samples for everyone) and was in heaven! It was delish! All the prep for the demonstations were done by Gold Rush Grille/Crisp Catering owner Joe Thompson and his staff. They get to do all the fun stuff. Not only do they feed the staff of the many different agencies around the capitol, but they get to actually cook for and with famous chefs!

I've also already gone through Cat's cookbook and marked recipes I want to try... although, it looks like the book threw up little tabs. I should just have a Julie and Julia moment and cook my way through the book... hmmm, that's not such a bad idea.

Okay, who is coming for dinner?

Well, I did it... again

2010-02-19T10:54:00.000-08:00

I went and signed back up for Weight Watchers. I've realized that I need the structure that counting points can give me.

On Monday, I sucked it up and took myself to the WW center and went to a meeting. I went in with fresh eyes, making myself forget everything I have ever learned in the past. The program is much different and seems very simple to follow.

I was horrified as I stepped on the scale, and even though I am down 16 pounds from my all-time high, the number I saw made my stomach plummet to my toes. I vowed then and there to never see that number again.

Since then, I've tracked every single thing I have put into my mouth, even the zero-point foods and drinks. I've walked to work twice this week and plan on walking a lot more often once the weather is consistently nicer.

I have noticed that when tracking the healthy guidelines, I do NOT eat enough vegetables or get enough dairy in. Definitely something I'm going to have to work on.

Through out this journey, I plan on using the blog to chronicle the ups, down, successes and frustrations of what I have decided will be the last time I do this... because I will succeed this time.

Restaurant Review: Sweetwater Restaurant and Bar

2010-01-21T22:35:00.000-08:00

For Andrea's birthday, waaaaay back in October, we went to try the newly relocated Sweetwater Restaurant and Bar. Formerly, one of the more popular neighborhood restaurants in East Sacramento, Sweetwater relocated to the corner of 19th and S street in midtown, in the former location of Fins Fish Market. It's a good location. I drive by it almost everyday, and each time I do, there are people at the bar watching whatever game is being shown on the televisions over the bar, and usually a few people dining at the tables.

When Andrea and I arrived, the hostess who sat us told us there was a large party near where were were seated and if we wanted to sit somewhere else, that was fine. Knowing we've been to places as party of a larger party, it didn't bother us and we stayed where we were.

After looking at the menu, we decided on an appetizer of Big Easy Shrimp ($8.95). It was a perfect blend of a dark sauce of bourbon, Worcestershire, hot sauce and garlic and was served with ciabatta toast. The shrimp were cooked perfectly and we even asked for more bread to soak up the excess sauce.

We finished our appetizer just as the main courses arrived. Andrea ordered the Stuffed Chicken Breast ($14.95). Stuffed with prosciutto and goat cheese, it was then pan-seared with a finish in the oven. It was served with a potato leek gratin and a thyme butter sauce. I ordered the Grilled Salmon ($15.95). It was served over Israeli cous cous with feta cheese.

Having never had Israeli cous cous, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. I'm not normally a fan of cold foods that I am used to having warm, but this was delicious. The cous cous is slightly larger than regular cous cous, and I could taste the vinegar used to toss it all together. It also had red peppers mixed in which gave it so much more flavor.

The atmosphere in the place was great. It was welcoming and fun! The staff was attentive to our needs and as I said earlier, even went to far as to offer to seat us away from the large party.

It's definitely a place I will visit again, if not only to have more of the shrimp appetizer!

It's about time

2010-01-19T20:11:00.000-08:00

So, I've been on a blogging/tweeting hiatus lately. I've been busy/out of town/computer was down/nothing to talk about... Or, we can just call it like it is... I've been lazy. I've got probably three weeks worth of posts in my head, it's just a matter of getting them down. I keep thinking I'll do it over the weekend and just schedule them out, but then it rains and I'm lazy and want to stay in bed doing nothing but watching TV.

Quick update on me, then a preview of what's coming.

I'm officially down 20 pounds from last March when I started with my trainer. I'd love to be down at least 10 more before the beginning of this March. Six weeks. I can do that. If I work my ass off.

Gym: I'm running now. I promised some friends (C.G. the Foodie and Crazy Mom Zara) I would run the Disney 5K with them in September. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need eight months to get myself running 5Ks. Still working with the trainer. I'm getting stronger (I can feel it) and am not as sore as I used to be for as long after a workout.

Food: Yeah, still fat. Still love food. No matter how much I go to the gym, if I can't make better choices when I eat, it's not going to do anything.

Life in general: Same old, same old. Ya know... I think my life is pretty boring. Work, gym, home. Throw in some Junior League meetings a couple times a month, and some fun stuff on the weekends and you've got my life.

New Blog alert: Recently, some lovely ladies I know (and have had the opportunity to briefly work with a few of them) started a blog. Girls on the Grid is a fun blog, with tips and tricks to living, working, playing and eating in Sacramento's midtown. The site is currently holding a "Most Eligible Bachelor" contest, and I highly recommend you check out the bachelors and vote for Jason Bryant. He's a good friend, who is sweet and kind and hilarious. Just read the description below his picture. Every word of it is true. I promise.

Coming soon:

Restaurant Review: Andrea and I visited a new (location) restaurant for her birthday (in October) and I'll finally get around to posting.

Holidays: Thanksgiving, Black Friday and the weekend in San Francisco... including an experience with Hubert Keller's amazing new restaurant, Wine, Chocolate and Cheese party with the girls, Christmas with the family.

Email group update: New challenges, new contests

Cooking update: New recipes, funny experiences with shrimp and how to properly devein a shrimp: advice from a chef who knows me all too well.

The Fat Kid is on Twitter

2009-12-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

Yup! I finally gave in. LK over at Healthy Delicious finally convinced me to join Twitter. After telling me about the benefits of having the page would be for the blog, I finally just jumped in and signed up.

It took a few tries to get the name right... fatkidwholovesfood is too long and I didn't want to use FKWLF, so, without any further adieu, I'd like to introduce you to

fatkidfoodie

Yes, that's it. The closest I could get to my actual blog name. I am a foodie, and I am the fat kid. So, there you have it.

Bear with me for a little while as I learn how to use it. If you follow me, I promise I will do my best to figure out how to follow you back.

Playing tour guide in San Francisco

2009-12-04T21:57:00.000-08:00

Because Lauren had never been to San Francisco, I got to do one of my favorite things... play tour guide!

After we finished up with the Foodbuzz brunch, we set out for a long day of sight seeing and walking. Walking from the restaurant, we walked up Fifth Street, past the San Francisco Chronicle building and up to Market Street... which we quickly found out was closed due to the San Francisco Veterans' Day Parade. It's a good thing the giant mall is there, we ducked in through the doors, went down stairs and through the BART station and up the other side of Market. Lauren remarked how nice the BART station was and as I giggled to myself, I told her that's because this is one of the nicer stations... she should see some of the others.

We walked straight up Powell to Union Square, stopping at the bottom of Powell so Lauren could take a couple photos of the cable car turn around.

After asking Lauren if she wanted to walk the short way (straight up the Powell Street hill and over to the Pier) or the long way (along the Embarcadero), we decided to split the difference and walk through the financial.

*side note... the people begging on the street are getting mighty creative with their signs. I didn't take a picture of it and had to turn away to laugh because the sign said "Laugh if you masturbate." Yes, really, it said that.

So, anyway, Lauren and I walked to Pier 39, and saw the stinky, smelly sea lions, then ate some wonderfully delicious donut holes covered in cinnamon and sugar, and headed west toward the Golden Gate Bridge. After taking some photos of the Bridge from Fort Mason, we hiked up to Ghirardelli Square, where we went into Kara's Cupcakes (and only looked). We went into the Ghirardelli Chocolate Shoppe, where upon entering were handed a peppermint bark chocolate square. Heading to the other side of the Square, we went into the OTHER Chocolate Shoppe and got ANOTHER peppermint bark square... and ordered a hot fudge sundae. It's been a really long time since I've had a real hot fudge sundae, and this was so good, I could have eaten a hundred of them. But, like good girls who are watching what we eat, we shared it.

We headed back down to Fisherman's Wharf, where Lauren took more photos, and then walked back to the hotel to pick up our bags of stuff. We hopped on BART back to the other side of the Bay, and then headed back to Sacramento.

We had a blast, and can't wait to do it again!

I ♥ Foodbuzz (part 3... Sunday morning)

2009-12-03T14:48:00.001-08:00

First, sorry for the long time between posts. It's been busy!

Sunday in San Francisco was yet another gorgeous day. Lauren and I got up and met Mardi in the lobby and cabbed it over to Lulu for breakfast. We didn't hurry, but got there in plenty of time. We took our Steamy Kitchen cookbooks for the author to sign (there was a scheduling conflict and Jaden was unable to make it on Saturday) and found seats. Feasting on a breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, quiche and salad, we sat down and enjoyed the company of our new friends for one last time.

Because I don't like tomatoes, I did not partake in the Bloody Mary bar, even though it looked amazing. Someone at our table turned his into a BCT Bloody Mary. Bacon, Celery and Tomato. It looked delish.

After exchanging business cards one last time and saying our "see you later"s to everyone, Lauren and I headed out for a touristy day* in San Francisco.

*touristy day coming soon

I ♥ FoodBuzz (part 2B... Saturday night)

2009-11-12T19:45:00.000-08:00

What can I say about Saturday night that hasn't already been said? It was totally awesome, fun, and delicious!

The night started with everyone gathered at the hotel to get on the buses. People were chatting, still getting to know each other. Some, of course were more friendly than others, some found instant friends, bonding together over similar likes and dislikes, and some just kept to their own little groups.

The dinner and awards were held at the Greenleaf Produce warehouse, and it reminded me of a farm-to-table, all-organic Costco. There were fruits and vegetables EVERYWHERE! As we all walked in, we were handed a glass of crisp white wine. We found seats in the tomato section (we all know how much I LOVE tomatoes... gag), and went off to socialize. We took some pictures, chatted with the other foodies, then finally sat down to eat. We lucked out and sat with Jesse from Beer and Nosh, who encouraged us to keep our empty wine glasses. He proceeded to whip out a bottle of his own home-brewed beer and pour us all a glass. Now, I don't normally like beer, but this was so good! I definitely need to try that again!

The tables were set so nicely. Each place setting was different, and the napkins were folded around the menu for the evening. We all took our seats, and almost instantly, the server was there pouring us more wine. Each course had a wine paired with it. We had delicious vegetables, amazing soup, udon, calamari, sea trout (NOT salmon... even if it was pink, it's a totally different fish), beef cheeks, brussel sprouts and rice pudding for dessert. Everything was farm-to-table, sustainable and organic, and we were served family style, so even though it seems like a ton of food, we only had tastes of each.

I really can't even begin to describe how delicious everything was, so here are a couple of pictures:

To close the evening, the staff at FoodBuzz announced the awards. The announcement of the winners was interesting. People/Blogs we wanted to win, did not, and people/blogs we did not want to win, did. However, Jesse won his category, and after trying his beer, I can see why!

When we returned to the hotel, Lauren and I met Mardi (from Eat Live Travel Write), Kelly (from Evil Shenanigans), Andrea (from High/Low/Food/Drink), and a few others in the hotel bar for champagne and other drinks. We chatted for a while, said our good nights, and planned to meet in the morning at the brunch.

Next up... Sunday brunch at Lulu

I ♥ Foodbuzz (part 2A... Saturday day)

2009-11-09T21:43:00.001-08:00

**CHEESE ALERT***

Saturday dawned bright and early... for Lauren and the other East Coasters, that is.

**END CHEESE ALERT**

I met Lauren downstairs at 9 and we headed over to the Ferry Building to purchse a couple new books by a couple of great bloggers... more about those later, though.

After that we both headed into our sessions for the next 45 minutes. Lauren sat in on a Farm-to-Table discussion, and I went to an olive oil tasting. I sat down at the table and in front of me were six sealed cups of olive oil. at first I wasn't sure what to make of them... was I going to have to drink them or would we be given something to dip into them? Then I noticed the apple slices and slice of sourdough bread on a small plate.

Apparently though, the apples and bread were NOT for tasting with. They were palate cleansers. You taste olive oil (almost) like you taste wine. Sniff, swirl, sip and slurp (no spit). I was not sure how I'd do with the just drinking it. I don't really like slimy, greasy things in my mouth (that's what she said).

The chef leading the tasting was Michael Tuohy, the executive chef of Grange, the restuarant in the Citizen Hotel. I had a chance to speak with Chef Tuohy, and compliment him on the restuarant and the amazing food he serves there. I've been there for lunch, though not for the happy hour, or for dinner.

The six olive oils we tried were really good. My favorite, and the favorite of the majority of the group, was the Olio Nuevo, by California Olive Ranch. It is a 2009 extra virgin olive oil, that was harvested, pressed and bottled in the last few days. Talk about fresh!

After the tasting and the discussion, Lauren and I met up again and headed back to the Ferry Building to get our book The Foodie Handbook signed by the author Pim Techamuanvivit, who is known to food bloggers as Chez Pim. She was very sweet and personalized our books for us.

After wandering around the Ferry Building and enjoying the gorgeous weather, Lauren and I headed back to the hotel to meet up with Mardi of Eat Live Travel Write, and head over to the Metreon's City View room for the Tasting Pavilion and the Bertoli On the Menu" Test Kitchen, where Lauren, Mardi and Chrystal and Amir from The Duo Dishes were beginning to prep their demos.

Chrystal and Amir were first, cooking their winning dish, Baby Portobello Stuffed Mushrooms. It was wonderful, and it absolutely deserved to win!Next, was Mardi, cooking her Pesto Mini Deconstructed Pizza. It, too, was fabulous, and I am not suprised it won. There were pine nuts, basil (which Mardi, in her awesome little accent called it basil... as in apple), provolone cheese and other tasty ingredients (which I am not posting... visit her blog to see more!).

I could have eaten twelve of those mini pizzas, they were so delicious.

Finally, it was Lauren's turn. It turned out that my next session of the day (a Merlot tasting) was at the same time, so I kept going back and forth, because I didn't want to miss Lauren's demo.

Lauren's winning recipe was Cioppino with Shrimp and Mussels. It was so good! And so pretty in the dish! It tasted wonderful too!

Of all the recipes submitted, I am really glad these three won. I freely admit that I haven't trid the others, but in my honest opinion, the three best won.

As I said before, at the same time as Lauren's demo, I was supposed to be in a merlot tasting. When I walked into the tasting room (basically, part of the tasting pavilion blocked off with a curtain wall), I sat down and saw four FULL glasses of wine. These glasses were not poured for tasting. They were poured for drinking.

I am a huge fan of merlot, and the movie Sideways be damned, I will continue to drink it. Seriously, the guy leading the tasting said that after that stupid movie was released, sales of merlot dropped dramatically. I forget the exact percentage, but it was some unbelievable number like 60%.

I got a little creative here, and decided to try to be all artsy-fartsy with my camera, the wine glass and the spit bucket (empty, of course).

After Mardi, Lauren and I finished tasting all the wonderful food in the room... and reciving so much more in goodies (I added a garlic skinner, a meat thermometer, tongs, some jams, more olives, and so much more to my bag o' swag), we hopped into a cab for the one mile drive back to the hotel. Yes, a cab. For one mile. We had a crap-ton of stuff, it was heavy, and were tired! Sue us!

Next up: Part 2B... Saturday night

I ♥ FoodBuzz (part one... Friday)

2009-11-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, this past weekend was the first annual FoodBuzz Bloggers Festival. Lauren from Healthy Delicious flew in on late Thursday night from New York, and after my putting in a couple of hours at the office on Friday, we headed down to San Francisco for the weekend. Thinking it would be smarter to take BART, we parked the car in the parking garage at the Pleasant Hill BART station and hopped on the train. 45 minutes later, we emerged from the depths of the Embarcadero BART station and headed to Hotel Vitale, where we were staying for the weekend, thanks to Lauren winning the Bertoli recipe contest!

After checking in and finding out our room wasn't quite ready, Lauren headed into a meeting with the Bertoli reps and the other contest winners. I headed over to the FoodBuzz table to check in, where Alexa from FoodBuzz handed me a SWAG bag that weighed a good 20 pounds.

Finally getting up to the room, we tore into the bags to see what we got. It was like foodie Christmas. There were spatulas, ball wisks, jars of olives, brie cheese, cookies, notebooks, coupons, a $25 gift card to Chefscatalog.com, a gift tin of sauces, and much more!

After freshening up, we headed upstairs to the reception on the roof of the hotel. The views were AMAZING!! There were appetizers and drinks... one of the sponsors was Skyy Vodka! There was a great turnout, as foodies from almost every U.S. state and at least four countries (or so I heard) converged upon The City.

After the reception, everyone headed downstairs and across the street to the Ferry Building for the "Tasting Pavilion." Holy cow was there alot of great food!
I tried many different items, including a vegan cheesecake (which I did NOT like at all), but my favorite by far was the pork belly sandwich. It.Was.A.Maz.Ing!

Basically, it was a pork belly, wrapped in skin and cooked on a rotisserie. Below the rotisserie, was a tray of fingerling potatoes. The potatoes caught the dripping juices from the pork and was marinated and cooked in that. Once finished, the pork belly was unwrapped from the skin, sliced, and placed on a roll. To finish it off, the skin was chopped up and sprinkled on top. Words cannot describe how delicious this was and how beautiful it looked.

We also tried gelato, mini cupcakes from Mission Minis, pizza from Pizza Politana, who brought the wood-fire oven to us, and so much other good food, there is just not enough room to write about it all.
After stuffing ourselves, Lauren and I headed back to the room to get some rest. It had been a long day, and since Lauren was on East Coast time, it was three hours later for her.

Up next... Saturday's events!

I've turned a corner

2009-10-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

Two days in a row of blogging
Three days in a row of tracking my food on Sparkpeople
Two days in a row at the gym

I really feel like I am FINALLY back on the track I was on earlier this year. I never really got off the track, just took a different route. However, I'm now back on the main path and headed toward my goal. No detours, no stops.

That's a bit cheesy, isn't it? Yeah, I think so too.

I've scaled back with the trainer at the gym. No, I'm not quitting him, just switching to one day a week for a while. I have a list of all the things I'm supposed to do on the days we don't work out. The ab workout is all the ones I hate the most. BUT, I'll do them. I won't like it, but I'll do them.

I'm still under my calories -- I should be having a minimum of 1,350. Today, I hit 1,127. I find it hard to eat all my calories, and eat healthy because then I feel like I'm pigging out. Although, when you think about how I used to eat 2,000 calories in one meal (thanks fast food joints), it doesn't seem so hard.

How do you get all your calories in for the day? What tricks do you have?

Meatloaf, Smeatloaf, double beatloaf... I hate meatloaf

2009-10-13T20:47:00.001-07:00

OK, not really, but if you can name the movie that line comes from, then you get a gold star.

So, I had an interesting day, today. I arrived at the office and was going about my business when all of a sudden, the power went off. The generators came on immediately, but they only give power to the emergency lights. No computers, no phone, nothing. I guess I should tell you all there is a giant storm going on. I woke up at 3am to the sound of wind and rain outside. It literally did not stop raining until about 7pm, tonight. The wind was terrible, and it knocked the power out to my building, city hall, and a couple other downtown buildings.

No sooner had the word come down from the bossman that we could leave, the power came back. A bunch of people had already left, so my immediate boss said I could go. Now what was I supposed to do?

I got home (having to take another route home since there was flooding on the main route), changed and decided to go to the gym. Yes, the gym. Apparently, I have turned into one of those people that actually likes going to the gym. I walked two miles on the treadmill, then headed home. I decided to take advantage of the time I had, so I hit Safeway and got the fixin's for a meatloaf.

You all know I'm not a "take a picture as I go" person, so here's the recipe...

Two pounds ground turkey (or beef if you so desire)

Two eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 cup bread crumbs (I used Progresso original flavor)

Whichever spices you like (I used onion powder, garlic, thyme, salt and white pepper) - to taste

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and mold into a loaf, or use a loaf pan. I used a silicone loaf pan. Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour or until cooked through. If you're the ketchup type, you can spread ketchup over the top before you put it in the oven. I personally like to dip, so I left it off. You can also use barbeque sauce, tomato sauce or really any other sauce.

Before it went into the oven

While I waited for the meatloaf to cook, I got to mixing the ingredients for an apple cake. I was given a mix to try so, I grabbed an apple, beat two eggs, and mixed it all together. It smelled divine.

Once the meatloaf was finished, I served Scotty a slice along with some mixed veggies. Then I remembered to take a picture of the completed loaf.

Out of the oven... two slices gone

With the meatloaf out of the oven, I put in the cake. 45 minutes later... VIOLA!

Mmm... apple cake

It was like I was channeling Martha Stewart, today. Good thing I love her!

On another note, I'll be attending the Foodbuzz conference being held in San Francisco in early November. It was a last-minute decision. I'm really looking forward to spending the weekend in my favorite city and eating, drinking and meeting other Foodbuzz bloggers!

Blogging

2009-09-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

So, I've been thinking over the past day about my blogging habits.

First, I put it on my calendar. Every night from 10 to 10:30, I should blog. Second, even if I forget to take photos, I should still post something each day. Third, I need to remember to take photos. And fourth, I need to keep my camera with me to take photos.

So, consider this a new start to blogging.

Why I suck at blogging - by Allie

2009-09-21T14:58:00.000-07:00

1) I never remember to take pictures of everything I'm eating
2) I haven't been cooking very much
3) I've been lazy
4) Even when I do think to blog, if I don't do it right away, I forget

And now, for the excuses...

1) It's been a crazy month
2) I haven't had anything interesting to say
3) I've been lazy
4) It's too hot to cook

Note to self... BLOG MORE! Perhaps I need to put a recurring reminder to sit down every night and write a little bit.

How do you all remember to blog? How long until it became habit?

I'm going to Disneyland!

2009-09-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

OK, so it's my annual trip to Disneyland with Carol (C.G. the Foodie). This year, we are being joined by Zara (Crazy Mom) and our friend Jaime, who's awesome. While there, Crazy Mom Zara will be running in the Disney Half Marathon on Sunday, and both Zara and Carol will be running the 5K on Saturday. Jaime and I will be on the sidelines cheering them on.

We will also be spending one day at Magic Mountain and three... count them THREE, days at Disneyland. Which happens to be my favorite place ever... and since Jaime is a Disneyland virgin (can you even say that when talking about Disneyland?) I guarantee you, I will take her on every single ride in the place. Including the Dumbo ride.

In addition to all of the Disneyland food (churros, Mickey Mouse-eared ice cream, and $20 lunches) we will be having dinner with some of our other friends, who live in southern California. Jordan and Andrea will be meeting us in Downtown Disney for some fabulous cuisine. I am sure Carol will blog about it when she returns, next week (and Carol, consider this a reminder).

What's your favorite Disneyland ride?

I think I may curl up into a ball and not leave my darkened room for the next two weeks

2009-08-13T12:09:00.001-07:00

Hot trainer is going on vacation!! In objection to that, I am eating nachos for lunch today. Mmmm, melty cheesy goodness with chicken (hey, I need the protein).

Seriously, though. Who told him he could take a vacation? I don't care if he's laying on a beach, traveling the world, or visiting his grandma. I can't deal with going two weeks without a proper workout. I may need to cheat on him and grab one of the other trainers for an hour or so. I mean, really... does he honestly think I'm going to work out as hard as I do with him? Sure, I'll GO to the gym. Walk a bit on the treadmill, MAYBE even work on my flabby abs. But come on. Let's be real, here. We all know it's going to be nothing like my normal Wednesday and Friday workouts. No matter how hard I try.

Minor gym mishap and YUM!

2009-08-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

No, nothing embarrassing, but the potential was definitely there. I was in my groove on the treadmill, walking at a 3.2 mph pace, and had been for about 47 minutes and 2.67 miles. There was a guy on the treadmill next to me also in his groove, running a 7.5 mph pace. I happened to notice the speed as I looked over to see if he was cute. Anyway, we're both in this groove, when all of a sudden, the power goes out. But only on those two treadmills. WTF? Normally, when the treadmill stops, it decreases the speed slowly (as I am sure you all know). In this instance, it was just all of a sudden stopped. Guy next to me and I looked at each other and both said "oh crap, we could have fallen." LOL. We both moved to different treadmills, but in the two minutes from stopping to moving, I completely lost my mojo and didn't even want to finish. I did another mile, but it was forced. Take two, tonight. Hopefully, the power doesn't go out again.

After the gym, realizing I hadn't had much protein, I stopped at Safeway and bought shrimp, orzo, frozen peas, asparagus, and creme fraiche. And a bottle of wine.

I was in the mood to cook, so I created a meal that could actually be used as either a side or as a main dish.

Excuse my toaster oven again. It feels left out when it's not in the pictures.

As I got the water boiling, I chopped the asparagus, and mixed it with the peas, creme fraiche, garlic and white pepper.

Saute the shrimp in some olive oil and more garlic, then add the creme fraiche mixture to the pan. As the orzo cooks in the other pot, keep stirring the shrimp so it gets evenly coated. Once the orzo is al dente, strain and pour into the pan with the shrimp. Mix it all together until it's coated. The orzo will continue to cook a bit, getting softer.

Once it's all mixed, it should look like this:

YUM!

While I was cooking this masterpiece, Scotty was cooking his dinner. He said he couldn't wait for me to come home from the gym, yet, his dinner wasn't done until mine was done. He could have waited. However, my brother, the cannibal, wanted meat. And meat he got!

Holy hunk o' meat, Batman!

I was afraid my dinner wasn't going to turn out very good since I had wanted to melt goat cheese in with the orzo, but the creme fraiche worked out great!

Next up... C.G. the Foodie's August Mystery Box contest!

Second Lunch

2009-08-10T15:36:00.001-07:00

Yes, I ate a second lunch, today. I was hungry. My first lunch was a spinach salad with walnuts, feta, craisins, and green apple, with a raspberry vinaigrette. No protein. I just ate a turkey sandwich on a croissant. I spent $16 on lunch today. Crap.

Back on Track

2009-08-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't tracked my food in Sparkpeople for at least two months. IT at work blocked the SP website for a while so I couldn't do it, and would forget to print it out at home... ok, who am I kidding? I tracked it all on the day I actually needed to print it out. Anyway, it's unblocked now. I'm going to start tracking again.

Remind me, mmmK?

So, Back in April...

2009-08-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

I ran a contest for a food/recipe/restaurant rating system. I considered all the suggestions and ideas, and have discussed it with my illustrator... also known as my brother... and he will be designing some icons for me to choose from. I'll throw them out to you for voting. C.G. the Foodie had the winning idea of using a baseball rating system, so it is definitely at the top of the list! Way to go C.G.! Knowing your love for Starbucks, I've decided you've won a $10 gift card, which will help fund your addiction!

Thanks for your suggestions everyone! I appreciate your participation, your support and especially thanks for reading my blog.

Vacation Recap and Life in General

2009-08-06T21:17:00.000-07:00

(Warning... this is going to be a long one...)

Last time I wrote, I was in the hotel in the lounge and wasn't able to really tell you about my trip. Being gone for 12 days really screwed with my routine. It was two whole weeks between workouts with my trainer (even though I was walking an average of 5-6 miles per day), I wasn't as focused on eating right, and I honestly didn't care as much. It really showed me how hard I have to work to get to where I want to be.

On that note... I've officially lost 16 pounds since March. I lost one pound while on vacation. must have been all the walking. I need to take my measurements, but I am pretty sure they've gone down. I feel stronger, I'm running a little faster, and throwing the ball harder when I play softball. I also feel like I'm hitting the ball harder.

Life has been crazy, lately. Between work, home, gym, softball and all the other 5,000 things I have on a daily basis, I'm usually not home before 8 or 9 p.m. Vacation was a welcome relief.

I spend the first four days in Delaware with 10 of the most amazing and fun ladies ever... and Eric, who was equally as awesome! The first night, in Wilmington, we went to this bar/restaurant/pub place and ate nachos. Not your normal nachos... GIANT NACHOS. With cheese, meat, beans, salsa, sour cream, guacamole (ew), and a ton of other stuff.

Then came morning. DUNKIN DONUTS!! Need. I. Say. More. For those West Coasters who have never had DD before... think the In'N'Out of donuts. After stuffing a Boston Creme Pie donut AND... yes, AND... a Vanilla Creme donut in to my gullet, I was sufficiently donutted (yes, that's a word) out. When we actually arrived in Dewey beach, first thing of course, we headed to the beach. I decided to wait until dinner... TACO TOSS and ORANGE CRUSH DRINKS. Now, Taco Toss isn't what you think. People do not throw tacos at you. It's one dollar tacos, nachos, hot dogs. The drinks will cost you about six dollars, but OMG, they are so worth it.

Nachos and Orange Crush... Taco Toss

For our second dinner, we went to a pizza place who's pizza was ok. I've definitely have better, even when drunk.

This was our server... I forget his name

After another full day at the beach on Saturday, it was once again time for dinner. We ate at a bar near the hotel and across the street from the bar we spend the evening at. We had two tables, since they couldn't seat us all at one. My table ate giant hot dogs. Seriously... these were the biggest damn weiners ever!

That is one GIANT weiner...

I've already given a recap of the Washington, D.C. part of the trip, so I'll spare you a repeat of that.

HOLY COW!!! GIANT WEiNERS!!!!

If you are still reading, thanks for making it all the way to the end. I'll try to keep them short and sweet in the future. Also, check out my "Blogs that Rock" section. Uncovering Food has a great contest running, The Food Snob is just awesome, Mom on the Run truly is a supermom, and all the rest are amazing as well.

Coming soon....

2009-08-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

The biggest damn hot dog you've probably ever seen.

Stay tuned for vacay recap (with some pics)!!

I know it's been a while

2009-07-26T06:05:00.000-07:00

And my deepest apologies. With the California Statewide Special Election on May 19, it got super busy before, and after... well, I was just lazy.

I'm currently on vacation in Washington, D.C. Having spent a week here, I've walked about 30 miles, total (I'll total it up when I get home tomorrow and add it to my previous amount.) We haven't eaten a ton. We've been on the go so much, that we've been eating breakfast in the hotel, and usually a snack and then dinner.

It's been an amazing trip. My favorite place to eat was "Good Stuff Eatery," the restaurant that Spike from Top Chef owns. It's a burger joint and has fabulous burgers, wonderful fries and a mayo bar. I highly recommend it.

Like I said earlier, we've walked about 30 miles -- probably more than -- and have had a blast. We've seen alot, but seven days is not enough time to see everything.

But, more about the trip later...

I have an update to my WL. Since I've been working with the trainer, I'm officially down 15 pounds, and I actually (most of the time) look forward to going to the gym. Yay! Who'd have ever thought! Once I get home, I will be going back to the gym (though not on Tuesday, it is my birthday after all, and who wants to go to the gym on their birthday?) and getting back to my routine. I never realized how much vacation messes with a routine.

Anywho... just wanted to let you all know what's been going on. I promise I'll write more when I get home.

Why I can never not have a trainer

2009-04-27T13:23:00.000-07:00

1) He's been on vacation for a week... I'm having withdrawals

2) I have been to the gym ONCE since last Tuesday

3) I haven't tracked a single thing I've eaten this week

4) I'm pretty sure I'm going to get my ass kicked on Wednesday when I see him again

Contest: Suggestions Needed!!

2009-04-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to come up with a scale for recipe, restaurant, and item reviews. It should be fun, inventive, and one-of-a-kind.

Suggestions I've received so far:

1) Alligators -- a play on my name, using the animal. A chomping gator for something great, a closed-mouthed gator for something ok, and a gator with XX over his eyes for something I don't like.

2) Puppies -- a dog wagging his tail, a dog sitting down, and a dog laying down.

Can you improve on these suggestions? Do you have suggestions of your own? Let me know! The winning suggestion will get a shout out in the blog and a surprise from me!

Contest will run through April 30, so get your ideas in!

Restaurant Review: Hot Italian

2009-04-22T20:03:00.001-07:00

There's a new restaurant in Sacramento's midtown called Hot Italian (located at the corners of 16th and Q Streets). From the outside, you'd never know it was a restaurant. For a long time I had no idea what the heck it was going to be. It's actually a mix of restaurant, coffee bar, and shop.

Andrea (who you will be hearing alot about in my reviews since she's my restaurant-trying partner) and I met for dinner and when we spoke this afternoon, we decided to try this place.

We arrived to find out (I had heard rumors of this) that it was communal seating. Pick a table, find a seat and sit down. The server came right up to us and offered us drinks. Andrea and I both ordered a Prosecco cocktail (strawberry for Andrea, raspberry for me) and looked over the menu. I had an idea of what I was going to order since I polled the ggroup earlier today. Andrea, on the other hand, had a difficult time choosing.

Prosecco cocktails

raspberry (left) and strawberry (right)

When our server returned to take our orders, Andrea decided on the Fiori -- a pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella, arugula, mushrooms, prosciutto parma, and truffle oil. I took the advice of the ggroup and ordered the Sozzani -- a pizza with baby baby spinach, craisins, pears, pine nuts, and gorgonzola dolce cheese. This was not a pizza as you would imagine it, though. It was more like the salad was placed on top of a pizza-sized flat bread.

Andrea's pizza

My salad "pizza"

After our usual "here, try some of mine," Andrea and I dug into our dinners. between the great conversation and fabulous food, we were finished in no time. After ordering another round of Prosecco cocktails -- blood orange for Andrea, raspberry again for me -- we got to dessert. I was not planning on ordering dessert since the Junior League was having a fundraiser at Big Spoon Yogurt tonight. However, I just couldn't pass up the peanut butter chip gelato, and Andrea couldn't pass up the cantaloupe sorbet.

Dessert
Cantaloupe sorbet (left) and peanut butter chip gelato (right)

Our bill came to about $80 for the two of us, including tip -- but half of that was for our drinks. At $10 per drink, four drinks add up!

The atmosphere was very modern and fun. White walls with black accents, black tables and chairs in the main dining room, a giant ceiling fan that come summer will be fabulous to sit under, and a fun-looking bar top in white with black silhouettes on it.

It's definitely a place I will frequent. Parking is all on-street, but there is a valet for $4. At 6pm on a Wednesday, there really is no need to valet your car.

A much needed break

2009-04-22T11:55:00.000-07:00

After yesterday's workout, I don't see Josh until next Wednesday as he is out of town. I'm a little glad for that because it means a much needed rest from the really tough workouts. Don't get me wrong, I'll still be at the gym (he told me he would check my log ins when he got back), but walking on the treadmill is much different than doing 45 assisted pull ups, squats, and crunches.

45 assisted pull ups. One of the hardest things I've ever done at the gym. I was so tensed up that I made my head hurt! Which is resulting in a slight headache lasting today. Oh, and I'm sore. The first five or six of each of the three sets were ok. As I went further and did more, it got so much harder, to the point where Josh had to help me do them.

After the gym, I had a softball game. It was so hot, I am not looking forward to playing in the middle of July. It should not be in the high-90s in April.

I woke up today, still with a headache from yesterday, and am just having an "off" day. I'm tired, I'm sore, and feel like I could sleep for a year. Once I actually made it in to the office, I realized how hungry I was, and opted for a repeat of yesterday's breakfast of a breakfast sandwich. Today, I also chose hash browns. Not the best choice, but I guess that's what happens when you are tired.

Not the healthy breakfast I was hoping for.

I'm headed home for lunch, so I'll see what the options are there. Then again, chances are, I'm going to get home and lay down for 30 minutes. A quick cat nap might do the trick!

Quick post on lunch

2009-04-21T14:38:00.000-07:00

I finally ate a protein-rich lunch of cottage cheese and salad with chicken. I didn't finish the salad, I was so full from the hard boiled egg and chicken that I first picked out. I did not eat the bleu cheese (*gag*) or the red onion (I am seeing hot trainer in 45 minutes. Don't want stinky breath), or the croutons. OK, I ate three croutons. But they were soggy and kind of gross.

I've also realized I am a cottage cheese snob. The kind I had was a bit watered and I was not a fan. I like my Knudesen small curd 2% fat cottage cheese better.

Off to finish up my last 15 minutes of the day. Yay for getting off work early! Even if it is for the gym.

I'm blaming Carol

2009-04-21T12:21:00.000-07:00

I didn't get to sleep until after 1am this morning. Carol over at Uncovering Food and Uncovering Me sent me a Google chat around midnight, and we ended up chatting for about an hour. Not that I mind at all. She's a pretty awesome lady. I talk to her just about every day. She's a good friend.

Today, though, my brain isn't quite working. I think it's still tired and wants to sleep. Proof of that is my forgetting to keep my camera with me at all times. I really need to remember to take pictures of my breakfasts. Today it was a breakfast sandwich. An English muffin, with one slice of cheddar cheese, a slice of Canadian bacon, and an egg. Basically, an Egg McMuffin, but not from McDonald's.

I really need to eat some lunch before I hit the gym. Josh looks at my food logs and would not be happy to see that I hadn't eaten lunch before I met with him.

Dinner is pizza. Last week, my softball team bet our opponents that we would win. If we won, they bought us pizza. If we lost, our coach had to make her famous homemade enchiladas. Luckily, we pulled out a win.

I'm so exhausted

2009-04-20T23:12:00.000-07:00

I've been running on fumes for days now. As you know, every single weekday, I have something after work. Tonight was no different. From work, I came home, grabbed by gym bag and headed to a Junior League meeting. From the meeting -- which ended around 9pm -- I went to the gym, where I run/walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes, and did 15 minutes on the elliptical.

I did not have the best food day. Well, I guess that's not completely true. For breakfast, I ate scrambled eggs with bacon, cheese, and spinach. Which, you've seen before.

I had a packet of Quaker Low Sugar Maple and Brown Sugar oatmeal for a snack around what should actually have been lunch time. However, since I knew it would be a late night, I had a really late lunch.

My usual lunch of a turkey sandwich, with cheese, lettuce, and cucumber, with a side of chips. I will never get sick of this lunch.

Dinner was a couple slices of salami, two piece of cheese, a slice of a baguette and two Swedish meatballs. Dinner is never great when I have League meetings. Oh well.

I see Josh tomorrow. We had to reschedule, so the only time he had available was 3:30 tomorrow, so I'm leaving work at 3pm and heading to the gym. It's also softball night, but since I'll finish at the gym at 4:30, I'll have a good two and one half hours to relax at home before my 7:30 game.

I have been slacking!

2009-04-20T13:22:00.001-07:00

Wow, has it really been two weeks since my last update? Man, time flies. Not so much when you are having fun, more like when you don't get home until after 8pm everyday.

Quick update...

1) Trainer: I'm officially down nine pounds in the last seven weeks! Amazing what happens when you really try hard and stick with it.

2) Eating: My menus have gotten alot better, lately. I'm consistently around 100 grams of protein per day. Now, I just need to work on my fiber and iron intake.

3) Life in general: As I said above, it has been crazy. Between volleyball, meetings, softball, the gym, bunco, and everything else going on, I haven't been getting home until well after 8pm every night. As a result of that, I'm two weeks behind on The Biggest Loser, six weeks behind on LOST (which greatly disappoints me), and weeks behind on a few other shows that I regularly watch. I don't foresee my life getting any less crazy for a while. But that's sort of a good thing. No mindless snacking.

I'll post more later, though I did make dinner last night, and remembered to take pictures of the process, though not of the end result. I'm also having dinner at a new place on Wednesday, so I'll post a review of that too.

Thanks for not giving up on me.

Surprise! I Do NOT Have Robot Legs

2009-04-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'm a little sore today. Not enough to really affect me, but I can certainly feel my quad muscles. Josh wins. Damn it!

Softball was rained out today, so instead of getting another guilt trip about not going to the gym, I went and walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes, and did the elliptical for 10.

I'm now eating a dinner of 99% fat free beef chili (40g protein for the whole can) and three quarters of a turkey and cheese sandwich. It was going to be a whole sandwich, but I'm kind of full.

I left for the office late today, so I didn't make my lunch. Tess and I went to the sandwich shop on the corner by our building (we are both extremely sick of La Bou, the grille, and Chinese), where I got a pretty filling lunch.

(Grilled roast beef with lettuce, provolone, and mustard, salt and vinegar dirty chips, and a Minute Maid pink lemonade)

Lunch was good, but I've got to admit, I'm getting really sick of lemonade. I can't WAIT until Sunday, when I can have soda again.

Tomorrow is Good Friday. Great Catholics fast and refrain from eating meat. I, however, am not a great Catholic. I am a good Catholic. I will not eat meat tomorrow, but really don't think it would be smart to fast, since I have another training date with Josh. Don't want to pass out from hunger during training.

I have scallops for dinner, with some asparagus and cheesy 'taters.

Did I mention I can't wait until Sunday? Diet Pepsi, look out!

Tonight's Gym Success and Protein Update

2009-04-08T21:47:00.000-07:00

As you all know, I see my trainer Wednesdays and Fridays. I have been seeing him since the end of March. Actually, my first session was supposed to be Ash Wednesday, but since we are both good Catholics... OK, HE was, I wasn't that day, we postponed until the next Wednesday. So really, it's been a Lenten thing.

Tonight though, when he asked me his normal "what hurt after last session and for how long" question, I happily told him that my body is starting to recover a lot faster than when we first started. However, my leg muscles still don't hurt at all. A statement to which he took as a challenge. So, tonight, we worked my legs out... alot. After doing my regular BOSU shuffles and crunches, we moved on to squats. With 90 pound weights on the bar, I breezed through the first three sets and since my legs weren't feeling anything, he made me do a fourth. After that set, when my legs were just a little tired, he called me a leg robot, and said that come hell or high water, he would make my legs hurt. So, downstairs to "man's land" - aka, the free weight section - we went. Where I had to do the step, and leg press. With 180 pounds. STILL nothing. Apparently, I am a leg robot. HAHA! We'll see how much/if my legs hurt tomorrow.

After my 60 minutes with Josh, I hopped on the treadmill to walk a 5K. I wanted to try to beat my time of 59 minutes from last Friday. So, off I went. Luckily, I have great music on my ipod, and there was a basketball game on the television to keep me occupied. Next thing I knew, 56:35 had passed and I had walked the 5K. I beat my time by almost 2:30! Yay!!

The first thing we do during my session after I sign in is go over my food logs. He was shocked and amazed at my awesomeness on Monday and Tuesday. 101 and 116 grams of protein, respectively. Yes, you read that right! I made my goal of hitting 100 grams of protein. Now, I just need to be more consistent.

Cottage cheese is a great source of protein. One cup of Knudsen's 2% milk fat cottage cheese packs a 28g punch!

I am so much more aware of my protein intake, these days. I look at labels, and (shock of all shocks) do the math and try to figure out how much I need/have eaten for the day. Thank goodness for Sparkpeople. They do all the math for me... once I get everything tracked, that is.

Look out tomorrow for a rundown of my yummy lunch! I'm trying to bring lunch to work since by doing that, I can control my calories and nutrition. And save some money, too.

Because Carol Said So...

2009-04-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

I now have to begin blogging more frequently. We had a short discussion about Food Buzz and Carol said that if I really want to be like her, I have to blog more, and she will hold me to it. So, here it is.

Dinner. Softball got rained out tonight, so I took the time to make a healthy dinner. I could eat chicken every night, but of course need different flavors for it. So, I pulled the defrosted chicken out of the fridge (since I had forgotten to take it out of the freezer yesterday, therefore resulting in my omitting the chicken from my burrito last night) and looked around the kitchen for flavors and sides to go with it.

(I ended up with the chicken, goat cheese (NOT feta), some canned corn, and a bag of veggie steamers (excuse my toaster oven... it wanted to be in the picture, too).

First, I took some minced garlic that I have from the fruit/veggie stand in Dixon, and sprinkled it on both sides of the chicken. Rub it in, so that it works it's way into the chicken, and so you get some good flavor.

Cook on my all-time favorite grill pan (Macy's Day After Thanksgiving special... $11 for a Martha Stewart grill pan, normally $40), with a little olive oil and more minced garlic in the bottom of the pan.

(Seriously, best pan, EVER. I highly recommend it. And not just because I ♥ Martha Stewart)

Spray some Wishbone salad spritzer dressing over both sides of the chicken.

(I used the Italian dressing)

Heat up the corn in a pot on low, and put the steamer bag in t he microwave for about 4.5 to 6.5 minutes. Once the steamer bag is done, remove and let sit for one minute, then empty contents into a bowl.

(steamy!)

Once chicken is done cooking, sprinkle the goat cheese over the top, plate the items, and enjoy!

It really was a great dinner. It took maybe 30 minutes to cook, and was very filling. I didn't even finish all of it. There is also leftovers in the refrigerator, but since I am not one to eat the leftovers, I am sure my brother, Scott, will eat it tomorrow.

Tomorrow: I have a date with Josh, the hot trainer. I doubt I'll have to run stairs since it's raining (yay for rain getting me out of running stairs), but I am sure he will come up with something equally difficult.

What Do You Get When...

2009-04-04T23:05:00.000-07:00

You add one pound of fresh shrimp

to one can of green beans

and some instant mashed potatoes (that I forgot to take a picture of in the pot)?

Answer: A really filling and yummy dinner!

It was quick. It was easy. It was good!

And including my lunch, my protein count for the day was 79 grams. I WILL get up to 100. Before I see my trainer on Wednesday.

Tomorrow, after church, I'll be heading to my BFF's to color Easter eggs with the baby. I know he's only one, but he should still be able to color eggs. Not sure what's on the menu, but for dinner, my BFF mentioned something about turkey. So, we'll see. I'll also fit the gym in sometime tomorrow.

Speaking of the gym, on Friday, I worked out with Josh (I figure it's about time he had a name) for an hour, and then walked on the treadmill for 65 minutes. I gave myself a goal, that I was going to walk a 5K in less than the time I was on the treadmill. I walked it in just over 59 minutes. By the time the 65 minutes were up, I had walked 3.46 miles. I plan on doing better tomorrow.

Protein - Day One Update and Day Two Beginnings

2009-04-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

I ended up with 84 grams of protein yesterday. Not what I was shooting for, but SO much better than what I have been doing.

For lunch, I finished off my salad from Jack's, and for dinner had some chicken and veggies.

Today, I started with Special K with Red Berries and fat free milk (14g/protein) a bagel with a little cream cheese (5g/protein). I'm currently snacking on pumpkin seeds, which have alot of protein, but an equal amount of fat.

I'm also trying to cut back on eating a bagel and cream cheese every day. I'm going to shoot for once a week.

Seeing my trainer tonight and I will probably have to run the stairs, since we didn't do them on Wednesday. Of course, I was ready to do them Wednesday. Today, I'm not looking forward to it, but know I have to. I'll get better at them eventually.

I need to go to Safeway and Trader Joe's and stock up on healthy foods. I'll make out my list tonight and go tomorrow after the gym.

Don't forget to check out Mom on the Run and Uncovering Food for the contests.

Two Contests!!

2009-04-02T11:52:00.000-07:00

Sarah over at Mom on the Run is hosting a new contest giving away your own mix of granola, and Carol over at Uncovering Food is giving away Cliff Bars! Yum!! Check out their blogs and enter the contests!

Eating Massive Amounts of Protein - Day One

2009-04-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

So what if by "massive" I mean my recommended daily amount. 100 grams. I was not in the mood for Special K with Red Berries and fat free milk, so when I went downstairs to the grille, I chose an egg scramble with spinach, bacon, and cheese.

Yum!

There may also have been a hash brown that I ate in the elevator on the way back to my office.

Total amount of protein - 32 grams.

Good start to the day, but I still have many hours left to go. We'll see how lunch goes...

Wow! Two Posts in One Night

2009-04-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

I just had to quickly mention my friend Zara's blog. Zara is a mom of four who teaches martial arts, runs marathons, and is pretty much amazing. She too, has started a blog and is calling it Crazy Mom. It has (like most of the other blogs I'm following) recipes. But what's great about her blog is that in addition to WW points (for those who follow WW), it has nutritional info. INCLUDING PROTEIN COUNTS!!! WOOHOO... I will be trying many of her recipes.

I Have the Awesomest Trainer Ever (and update)

2009-04-01T21:07:00.000-07:00

While he was figuring out my BMI and my body fat percentage after the first month of working out with him, I noticed in his binder that one of his clients is an NBA player. Yeah, not only is he hot, but clearly, he's the best one at my gym.

Anyway, the one month results are these:

-5 pounds
-1.5% of my body fat
-1 BMI point

One thing we discussed tonight is that I'm not eating enough. Right now, I eat just around 1,200 calories per day. He thinks that witht he amount of working out that I am doing, I should be eating no less than 1,300 calories, but more like 1,500. And I need to eat at least 100 grams of protein per day. That seems like soooooo much to me. As it is, I have a hard time eating the 60 grams I do eat per day. I guess I just need high-protein recipes. Thank goodness all my friends have blogs, with recipes.

Speaking of blogs. Emily has joined the blogging world. Visit her blog at keyofemily.blogspot.com

Anyway, back to food. I have no idea how I am going to get 100 grams of protein in per day, but you can be darn sure I'm going to try my hardest. At the moment (and I apologize, but I forgot to take a picture of it), I am eating a Santa Fe Chicken Salad from Jack's Urban Eats. I think I've mentioned it before. I eat here at least once a week. Tonight, with the MORE PROTEIN lecture fresh in my head, I got double the chicken and double the black beans. Hopefully, that bumps me up. Not to 100, but up.

Lately, I've been drinking at least 100 ounces of water per day, and I've been really good at doing that. I gave up soda for Lent (10 more days), and am sick of lemonade and cranberry juice, so I've really been getting my water in.

Contest!!

2009-03-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

Sarah over at Mom on the Run is hosting a POPCHIPS contest. Run over there and enter. The winner receives a sample box of chips!

Top Chef, Here I Come!

2009-03-12T21:39:00.000-07:00

I am a genius. I created a simple, yet quite filling meal in about 20 minutes. Take THAT Rachael Ray. 30-minute meals my rear end.

I've had a busy week. And by busy, I mean getting off work at 5:30, running to meeting, volleyball, softball, or the gym, and then after that running to something else. It's been at least two weeks since I've been home before 9pm each night. I am exhausted. Today, I had a meeting at 6, and then went to the gym. Normally, these meeting last 45 minutes. Tonight, however, it lasted 75. Ugh! So, even though, I didn't want to, I dragged myself to the gym and started working out around 7:45. By the time I was done with my cardio (which is what I am supposed to do today), it was 8:30. A quick stop at Target on the way home for razor blades (can't see HT tomorrow with hairy legs) and shampoo and I was home by 9:15.

First thing I did was pull the scallops I threw in a bowl with some lemon juice and garlic out of the fridge:

Second, I opened a new bag of baby spinach:

Cook for about five minutes (if that):

And you get: Pair with a glass of wine (I chose Ravesnwood Chardonnay), and you've got yourself a yummy dinner.

I'm exhausted after the long day. TGTID (Thank God tomorrow is Friday)!

P.S. Thanks to Carol over at Uncovering Food for being the Jiminy Cricket to my Pinocchio and reminding me that it's been days since I've blogged. Check out her blog for some ongoing contests.

In-N-Out Burger

2009-03-09T15:30:00.001-07:00

Double Double with ketchup, mustard and pickles only, fries, and a milkshake.

Need

I

Say

More?

I'll be at the gym for a while tonight before I go to volleyball.

Food Find!

2009-03-06T22:02:00.001-08:00

Tonight, I had session two with HT. He got me all hot and bothered... FROM THE WORKOUT, you dirty minded people!! While he was trying to keep my mind of the fact that I was in some pain, he was telling me to try this pasta/bean recipe. OK, not really a recipe. He is a guy after all. Basically, it's whole wheat pasta, and a can of vegetarian chili, both cooked, and mixed in a bowl. One to one ratio. One serving of each.

And this is that you get:

Quite delicious. I had one cup pasta and one-half cup beans. It was plenty filling. I may need to make this more often.

You Know You're a FKWLF When...

2009-03-06T21:11:00.000-08:00

You are trying to describe something and instead of saying "it would be the pièce de résistance," you say "it's like the plastic decoration on top of a cupcake." Yup, I said that. I was trying to describe to my coworker, and friend, Tess what it would be like for me to visit the U.S. Capitol.

One of my top ten bucket list items is to visit every State Capitol and the U.S. Capitol. Take a picture of me in front of it. So far, I've been to (and taken a picture in front of): New York. Yes, one. State Capitols I've been to (and don't have a picture): California (one would think since I work a block south of the California State Capitol, there would be a picture of me in front of it. That's the thing. I work close to it. I'm there or around it, every day. I don't want to go there and be lame and take a picture), Wisconsin, Nevada (though, I'm pretty sure if I dug around my mom's picture boxes I could find one of me in Madison, since I spent tons of summers there, and I think either me or my BFF has pics from our "close your eyes and pick a place on the map" trip to Carson City).

Anyway, trying to describe to Tess how excited I would be, the FKWLF in me compared it to a cupcake.

There's a reason I have a trainer. This was it.

Wow, it's Been a Week

2009-03-06T13:43:00.000-08:00

I'm trying not to fall back into the habit of starting a blog and then never updating it, so if you all see that I haven't blogged in a few days, please remind me.

Catching up the last few days.

Wednesday: Session one with the trainer. We talked about (and analyzed) my food logs, and figured out that I'm actually not that bad with my food. I don't get enough protein, and I need to lower the fat, and make a couple of substitutions, but in all, it wasn't as bad as I thought. After that, we started the weights. He'd set up the machine and I'd try one set at a certain weight. then he'd ask if it felt ok, and when I'd say yes, he'd increase the weight. He also had me do some free weights. Now, any one who belongs to a gym knows that the free weight room is sort of a "guy's land." The gym can be intimidating enough, but being down in that room with all the super Arnold Schwarzenegger types is even more intimidating. But... I got through it. It's much easier when you aren't in there alone.

Thursday: Gym FAIL. I had planned on making the Zumba class at 6:30, but didn't leave the office until 5:45, so I didn't get home in time enough to eat dinner and make the gym. So, I sat and watched the Biggest Loser online since last week's episode didn't record due to the State of the Union address. Man, do I feel lazy!

Today: Session two with the trainer. Eventually, I'm sure I'll start calling him by his name, but maybe I'll just shorten it to HT. Yeah, HT. I'm a bit sore from Wednesday, so I know that tonight is going to be harder (that's what she said).

Food wise, I'm doing ok. Eating more salads for lunch, and really starting to pay attention to my nutrients... proteins, fats, carbs, and iron.

Softball starts Tuesday, so look for updates on the Luck Dragon's blog, and my other blog.

And in the Category for Creative Writing Style...

2009-02-27T15:39:00.000-08:00

The nominees are Allie, Allie, and Allie. And the winner is... ALLIE!!!! Wooooo...ahhhh... the crowd goes wild!

I'd first like to thank Carol over at Uncovering Food for this award. I really appreciate it. I'd also like to thank, Mo, Sarah, and all the rest of my various email groups for their support. Thanks to the Ggroup, who's support means so much to me. To my mom and dad for letting me be creative as a child....

{Cue music}

... and I'd especially like to thank food. Who, without which, I would not be the FKWLF.

And, in keeping the award going, I'd like to give this award to Colleen, over at Cookies are a Sometimes Food. She's an amazing lady, who is doing a great job in balancing her life, and who is really good at keeping me and others on track.

When the Tough Get Going, the Going Get a Trainer

2009-02-24T20:35:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about getting a personal trainer at the gym for a few weeks now. So, last week (or the week before) I spoke with one of the trainers about the fees and how it all works. Tonight, I signed up!

After chatting with him for a few minutes about what I was looking for and what my goals were, I signed my life away and he now owns me from 6:30-7:30 every Wednesday and Friday for the next five weeks. That's really all that I could commit to at this point in time since the California Legislature decided to call ANOTHER special election. Starting in March, my days will be a bit unpredictable (but I will still make it to the gym).

Here are my guidelines:

1) Eat at least one fruit and one veggie everyday for the next two weeks. Then add either another fruit or veggie. He actually prefers that I add veggies.

2) Do some form of cardio everyday, except for Monday (that's my "rest day" because I have to ton of stuff going on on Mondays).

3) Track my calorie intake everyday, including my fat, carbohydrates, proteins, fiber, and iron. Thank God for Sparkpeople. Otherwise, I'd have a much harder time doing that. I also need to print my logs out every week for him.

I had to give him my top three goals: the first of course is weight loss. The second was overall health, and the third is the Disney 5K in September. He's going to train me for that!

I feel pretty good about it. I start next Wednesday, so I'll let you know if I'm still feeling good about it then.

Weekend Update

2009-02-23T12:03:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not Tina Fey or any of the much funnier than I comedians on SNL, but I didn't have a chance to post over the weekend, so here's a wrap up. What we in the Ggroup call a "weekend confessional."

Friday: I took a 55-minute kickboxing class at the gym. After about 15 minutes, I was ready to collapse. I stuck with it, and afterwards, amid sore muscles and legs, had a good dinner of leftover steak, veggies and potatoes (hey mom!! I ate leftovers!)

Saturday: After spending $125 at Safeway on groceries, I sort of overindulged on the burritos I had bought and ate two of them for lunch. I was hongry! For dinner, I had a bowl of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cereal. Not sure what happened there, but after tracking in Sparkpeople, I was still within my calories.

Sunday: I went to the movies with my BFF and of course that means movie popcorn. We went and saw the updated Friday the 13th, and then theater-jumped into Push. Neither impressed me much, but F13th was an adequate remake. I wouldn't have even wasted my time with Push if the hot guy from Fantastic Four wasn't in it. We were actually hungry enough and there long enough to get a refill on our large popcorn. Of course, we ate about a fourth of that refill. But we got one. That's all that counts.

I also discovered the Cabury's Mini Eggs are now on the shelves. Of course, I had to buy some. They are my favorite.

Oh, and big news on the WL front. I WI and was down 3.5 pounds. More than I've ever lost on WW in one week. Amazing what happens when you have an actual plan and go to the gym.

Today, I brought my lunch, and am planning on only eating that. Dinner is up in the air since I have Junior League tonight, so I'll have some of whatever they serve.

Just Say No

2009-02-19T10:40:00.000-08:00

I know, I'm not Nancy Reagan, and this isn't the 1982 anti-drug campaign. However, food, to me, is a drug. I find it hard to "just say no" when it comes to delicious food. Last night, my old roommate and I had our almost monthly dinner at Tuli Bistro in midtown Sacramento. It's a semi-new place, having only been open a year or so, that is owned by some former coworkers of my brother's.

It's a very quaint little place, with an open kitchen. It's very small inside, with the bar and a few tables. The real "dining room" is actually outside. It's very open, and I am sure in the summer very nice to sit out and have a glass of wine. Of course, in the middle of February, the outside isn't really outside, as it's been enclosed with what I guess could best be described as tarps with windows. There are heaters warming the area, and it really was quite nice, and even got to be a bit toasty in there. For a Wednesday evening, the whole place was filled with diners, and there were even a couple larger parties.

The menu changes daily, but I was hoping after looking at the previous day's menu online, that it wouldn't have changed too drastically. Luckily, it hadn't. We both ordered the Harvest Salad as a starter, and for our main course, Andrea ordered the Risotto New Orleans, which had grilled shrimp and andouille sausage in it. I ordered scallops served on a bed of spinach and garlic mashed potatoes. As per our usual, once the dishes came, we traded bites. I gave her one scallop, potatoes and spinach, and she gave me some of her risotto. Both dishes were fantastic! Washed down with a glass of Kung Fu Girl Riesling, we were both starting to feel full. Our dessert choices were numerous, but we decided on a Meyers lemon creme brulee for her, and an ice cream sandwich for me. The ice cream sandwich was good. Not to die for, and I could have done without it. That's where I should have just said no. I was feeling full, I didn't need it, yet, I got it anyway. I need to work on that.

I had also planned on going straight to the gym after dinner. I even had my gym back packed and in the car. I realized that I had forgotten to put socks in the bag. It would have been nothing to run in the house and grab some and go. I, however, did not do that. I went home, got lazy and watched TV. I need to work on that, too. I can watch TV at the gym.

Today, though, I have socks, my bag is still in the car, and I'm going to the gym straight after work.

And, I'll "just say no" to the laziness that will try to make me go home.

I am the FKWLF

2009-02-18T14:39:00.000-08:00

I can't take credit for that phrase, but as a life-long FKWLF, I am entitled to use it.

I have another blog and rarely post, but I'm trying to be better. I figured that if I have a separate one for food, exercise and weight loss, it might help.

Anyway, those of you who know me, know that I am for sure a fat kid who loves food. I love all food, unless it starts with a T and ends with an -omato, and will pretty much eat anything. I, of course have my limits, but I'll try something once.

My friends Monique, Sarah, and Carol all have food blogs, too. I want to be like them. They are amazing ladies who are great friends.

A special shout-out to the ggroup, who, without them, I might never be on this journey.