I Love Fridays - October 12, 2012 Style

Fridays are MY day.  I don't really see patients (I'm a shrink).  Mostly, it is a day just for me.  Today, the kittens are home since it is the end of the quarter.  It is currently a wee bit after 9:00 and the boy is watching TV, the girl is still sleeping, and I am menu planning for the week.

You've found Pinterest, right?  Love it.  It is a visual bookshelf that works much better for me.  Well, in the plan of getting this family's eating in a better path, I'm the official dinner cooker (remember, we both work outside of the home - he gets two to three nights a week).  My meals include Meatless Monday, Salad Wednesday, Burger Friday (this replaces Pizza and Movie on Friday nights), and Seafood Saturday.  When Football season is over, I will also have Soup Sunday

So, I have file folders in Pinterest for each of these meals.  I'm thinking this week we will have:

Burger Friday: http://pinterest.com/pin/125397170845890394/  Crispy Black Bean Cakes w Cilantro Dipping Sauce

Seafood Saturday: Not doing tomorrow since the girl and I are going to a pottery night at the KC Pottery Guild with our Mother-Daughter group from church.

Soup Sunday: The Steelers played Thursday this week.  http://pinterest.com/pin/125397170845947228/  Lasagna Soup.  The kids will likely hate it.

Meatless Monday: http://pinterest.com/pin/125397170845927564/ Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burritos (I will make extra and freeze)

Salad Wednesday: http://pinterest.com/pin/125397170845947262/ Chef's Salad with Turkey, Avocado, and Jack Cheese.

October 2012 Goal Setting and Personal Assessment

I've been avoiding the scale for a while, but my clothes were definitely telling me I was not getting any smaller.  As of this morning, I am actually heavier than I was at either six-week postpartum checkup.  A full 30.1 pounds more than my driver's license says I am (which is what I was a year ago).  Thirty pounds in one year is no joke.  My BMI is now 26.6 which means that I am overweight.  Not high end of normal range.  Overweight.  Over the course of the next ten months (until my August birthday), I would like to lose those 30.1 pounds, 6 inches off my boobs (I swear to you, my boobs have gotten even more huge than they already were; this is the part with which I am trying having the most difficulty), 7 inches off my waist, and 9 inches off my hips.  Yes, that is all a whole lot, but I'm going for slow and permanent.

I am not going to lie: I am extremely depressed by this.  Not so depressed that I'm getting back on my antidepressant.  I'm not clinically depressed.  I am just exceedingly bummed out.

So, no excuses, I am up 30 pounds largely because I eat like crap.  I've always been extremely physically active and have had the luxury of being able to eat more than I should.  Well, I'm 43, injured, depressed, tend to self-medicate more than I should with fat and drink.  I said it.  

That is me in a nutshell.  How I wish you could out train a bad diet.  Now, let me make it perfectly clear: my diet isn't horrible.  I'm not eating fast food or burgers and fries daily.  I'm not crawling into a cupcake and a bottle of vodka.  I just make too many excuses for things I shouldn't eat.  "Oh, this handful of trail mix isn't that bad."  "Just a few chips in mayo."  And then there is after bed snacking.  I get terrible restless legs and it often gets me up and over to the fridge.  For whatever reason, I've paired a late-night snack with being able to return to sleep.

So, that needs to be over.  Let me recap my September goals (oh, and I do want to point out that my blogging this is really just a fancy diary and that I'm not really expecting anyone to read it or find it interesting).

At the beginning of September, I challenged myself to completing 10,000 Kettlebell swings.  I finished it yesterday.  I'm not sure that I think it was worth it.  No, let me take that back: I don't think it was worth it.  I will keep up on some KBSs just because I think it'll help my booty in a way that will reduce running injuries.  And, I challenged myself to complete 30 yoga classes in 30 days.  I did it and I loved it and that will become permanent.  And, I earned myself some yoga gear and a new pair of pants (yoga goal and KB swing goal and, yes, my pants will be in my current size - love myself at all sizes).

But I do well with goals.  I like to use S.M.A.R.T. goals:

S-pecific

M-easureable

A-ttainable

R-ealistic

T-imely

I am not focusing them on weight because my goals are to change my relationship to food in general.  I want to be healthier for healthier sake, not as a rush to a weight goal.  And, I need to accept  myself at all sizes.  (That said, I will be thrilled when I was the "fat" I was two months ago).  

October Goals:

1.  Meditate for five minutes daily on the following Root Chakra Affirmation: "I nurture my body with healthy food, clean water, exercise, relaxation, and connection with nature."  If I could accomplish nothing else, it would be to fully take this in and make it me.  That would fix everything else.

2.  No more than 30 cheat foods a month.  This might seem like a lot, but it really is going to be very difficult.  That means ONE off diet food a day on average.  A Diet Pepsi counts.  A glass of Orange Juice counts, as does potato chips dipped in mayo.  I'm not specifying what I should and shouldn't eat.  The truth is: I know.  And you do too.  As such, I spent yesterday afternoon making carrot-ginger soup, black bean-sweet potato soup, and Ethiopian greens.  I will have healthy foods to eat and do not need to make any excuses.  

  

3.  I liked yoga so much, that I'm continuing that goal (frankly, I feel it is my foundation).  So, 31 classes for the 31 days of October.

4.  3,000 Kettlebell swings.  I think it will be good for me, but I do not think 10,000 is three times better than 3,000 (or, more accurately 3.3333333333333x better).  I'm going to be increasing the KB weight from 20 lbs to 25 lbs.

5.  Next, it is time to get back to getting some miles under my feet.  I developed two stress fractures in my right foot (third and fourth metatarils) and have not run at all since the beginning of July (yes, I am aware that is part of the weight gain).  I'm starting back slow.  I really am done being injured and, if it keeps happening, I'm hanging up my running shoes.  My goal is to put in 50 miles in October.  It can be run or walked.  It can be by myself, with my training partner, or with my dog.  It should be exceedingly easy to accomplish given that I'm runking a marathon in five days and that will account for a bit more than half the goal.  Oh, and I'm doing two 5ks with Jonathan in this month.  So, there, that accounts for a bit more than 32 miles already.

6.  Wake before 6:30 three mornings a week.  I was doing so  much better when I was getting up early to run on a regular basis.  I've become far too intimate with my bed.  And, while I do need sleep, I probably don't need to spend nearly half my life in bed.

That is it for now.  If I do all of that, I will be awesome.  Wait.  I'm awesome now.  I will think myself more awesomer.  And that is awesome.  And, with that, I will leave you with a picture of Spots the snake.

Giardiniera

I crave this stuff, but the stuff we buy at the store is either too spicy or not spicy enough and both versions are too salty. So, I found a recipe and decided to give it a try.

First, Jonathan and I chopped the veggies:

Then, you have to let it rest overnight in a salt water bath:

The next morning, I drained and rinsed the veggies:

While the veggie drained, I made the dressing:

After the dressing was finished, I mixed it through the veggies and packed the Giardiniera into two quart jars. Note, these are NOT preserved and I could not keep them safely out of the refrigerator. I anticipate that we will go through these two bottles within about two weeks.

And, then, I made myself some eggs and topped it off with some fresh Giardiniera. Yum!

It is supposed to rest for two days to fully allow the flavors to marinate, so I anticipate that my assessment of it today is incomplete, but having tasted it today, I have the following thoughts:

1) it is good, but it is definitely more salad-like than the condiment-like type I have been buying and eating. The good news in this is that you can eat a whole lot more of it as it is less calorie intense.

2) next time, I will increase the amount of carrots I use from 2 small to about 3 large (say from 1/2 cup chopped to closer to at least a full cup chopped). I will likewise increase the celery to the same amount.

3) even with the eight jalapenos, this is not hot to me at all (and I'm not even a heat jock). I'll probably keep the eight jalapenos, but add in maybe two serranos.

4) I will add a second bottle of olives because I like olives.

Finally,

5) I will increase the dressing proportionately by about 50% (so, instead of 1 cup each of olive oil and 1 cup of vinegar, I'll do 1.5 cups of each - likewise increasing the spices as well). Then, I will mix 2/3rds of the dressing with the veggies, but use the remaining dressing to top off each jar to bring the liquid to the top.

But, it is good as it is. I will ABSOLUTELY make this again. I think I like it better than the store-bought stuff primarily as it is a fraction as salty.

I give it two thumbs up. But, the real test will be my husband. I'll have to see what he has to say about it.