I think I'm becoming a tea person

So I've loved coffee for a long time. I worked at Barnie's coffee shop at the mall during the holidays and summers during college and I loved  it. That is when I began to appreciate coffee. Their "Santa's White Christmas" is the best coffee ever!

Since then I have cut out caffeine. I can handle a diet coke every once in a while, but if I get a full leaded Americano I'm out of my head!

I feel like I've been drugged. I get light headed and jittery. I can barely function. The first couple of times it happened I didn't recognize it. But now I do and I get pissed if a barista screws up my coffee.

But now, I find myself preferring tea in the morning. I don't hardly make coffee anymore.

Exercise = Gymnastics with my kid
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Smoothy - Kenfer, banana, ground flax, avocado, stevia, cashew milk
Bagel with butter
Rice cake with hummus and avocado

Swiss Cheese
Quinoa sticks (chips)
The last of the Hershey's cookies and cream drops thank goodness!
Quizno's sub with chips and a diet Pepsi
Turkey meat ball soup with spinach

Chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips

Why try?

So I'm kind of in a "why try" mood these days. All that work with the running and eating "healthy" got me no where. I didn't loose any weight. I guess I felt better sort of, but I was in pain. On Monday my foot hurt for mysterious reasons. The next day it was better. Go figure.

Then there are my knees to consider. I'm trying to loose weight to take pressure off them, but what I was doing was causing them to hurt more and preventing me from keeping active to loose weight.

Whatever, I'm sure I'll get back on a kick sooner or later, but for now I'm on my second week of a break. My "Couch to 5 K" app keeps sending me positive messages to get me going again, but I've been ignoring them.

Now with the weather turning colder I'm even less motivated to get up early in the morning for a workout. I may have to start going to the gym! Arg!

Exercise = no talent soccer tonight
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Bagel
Cottage cheese with kiwi
2 cup tea
Apple
2 rice cakes with peanut butter and jelly
Quinoa sticks (chips)
Hershey's cookies and cream drops (see I'm not really trying any more)
McDonalds quarter pounder with fires and an unsweet iced tea
Cheese stick
Buddy fruit
Shrimp pesto pasta

Phlegm

So I had a cold a couple of weeks ago. I was sick for 3 days (around Sept. 8th). I had to go to Bismarck for Work on the 8th and just powered through my sickness for the next couple of days because I was supper busy and needed to get things done.

Something that always happens to me after I get sick is that I get a lingering cough that hangs around for weeks afterward. I also have this phlegm situation where my nose is running and I've got phlegm built up in the back of my throat. I am continually coughing up mucus and blowing my nose. I continue to ask, WHEN WILL THIS STOP?!!

This morning I took a musinex and an allergy pill and I'm still snotty. I'm just hoping things clear up before I leave on my Los Angeles trip!!

Exercise = none, but my kid ask when I was going to pick him up on the bike again, I need to get on that
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Rice cake with cream cheese
2 cup tea
Apple
L/O wild rice with garlic yogurt dip and blue cheese
Avacado
6 pieces pepperoni
L/O slice of pizza
Hershey's cookies and cream drops
Grilled chicken
Grilled yellow squash, zucchini, mushrooms, red pepper

I am a domestic goddess

I've taken to a domestic roll quite nicely I think.

I cooked up some tomato sauce from tomatoes in our garden this weekend and I've really gotten into cooking. I think I'm pretty good at it.

For example, I make this ricotta cheese topping for potatoes that is awesome. Ricotta cheese, lemon zest, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. It is pretty simple, I need to add some garlic to it next time, I bet that would spice it up.

Exercise = Soccer with the kids, not much
Monday, September, 21, 2015
Rice chex cereal with cashew milk
Grapefruit
L/O Pasta with yellow tomato sauce, cheese and garlic
2 cup tea
DC coffee
Chex mix
Rice cake
Hershey's cookies and cream drops (about 10)
Trail mix
Grouse k-bobs on the grill with bacon, onion, green pepper
Potatoes with ricotta cheese topping
Pea pods and mini peppers
Mint chocolate chip ice cream

Weekend breakfast

Ableskevers! I know I spelled that wrong, basically they are pancake balls.

Stuffed tomato with wild rice. 

This is what it looked like before I cut into it.

I am my father's daughter

My husband this morning was discussing the fact that the way we eat is not the way he was brought up and that I inherited my dad's pallet for more expensive foods, or rather dramatic tastes. He also said that we are passing those things to our kids. For example today I packed broccoli and pear infused white balsamic vinegar in my kid's lunch. Well, that is just how we eat around here.

I do see some of my dad's eating habits and tastes reflected in the things I choose to eat. My dad makes the best blue cheese dressing. He has always enjoyed it and is a bit of a blue cheese connoisseur. We now have some blue cheese dressing in the fridge that I made for burgers the other night. It is just sitting there waiting for me to  dip something in it or pour it on something. That is another trait of my dad's that I've inherited, overindulgence. I often witnessed my dad slathering butter on bread and over dressing a salad with blobs of dressing then if we were at a restaurant asking the server to bring more.

But still, I have learned to enjoy some quite delicious foods from my dad's tastes. Blue cheese is one of them, lobster, beer, sausage, meat, cheese, shrimp (not many vegetables). However, it is somewhat difficult to cook for my dad when he visits because he is somewhat picky and doesn't eat many vegetables besides lettuce. The last time my parents came to visit he told me, "You use spinach to enhance the flavor not as a substitute for food."  WOW!

He also made an off hand comment about not liking female authors, but that is the subject for another time.

Exercise = none
Friday, September 18, 2015
Rice cake with peanut butter
Yogurt with stevia and kiwi
2 cup tea
Iceberg lettuce with blue cheese dressing
Chex mix
Couple of almond crackers
Mint chocolate chip ice cream (I need to just not buy this stuff)

Rice cake with peanut butter 

Meatballs and pasta with yellow tomato sauce

Hard cider, 2 glass wine, Moscow mule

I am over eggs

I used to be all about eggs. I made a practice of eating a hard boiled egg every day for breakfast. But these days I just can't do it. Maybe it is the eggs I am buying or maybe I'm burnt out on them. But I am just over them. I've been craving carbs in the morning lately. That may not be a good thing, but I seem to be satisfied with that for a while.

Although, I had been searching for the best way to peel a hard boiled egg and I found a great video with several different ways to do it. 

My favorite method is using a spoon. Crack open the air space at the bottom and use the spoon to get under the shell and it comes off nicely. That crack and roll method never works for me. The egg always splits open.

Exercise = none
Thursday September 17, 2015
Rice cake with peanut butter and banana
Toast with butter
DC coffee with whip cream
L/O veggies with a few egg noodles and Swiss Cheese (this is one of my concoctions)
Trail mix
Rice cake with peanut butter
Baby Bell cheese
HM Sausage with steamed green beans with vinegar

Menstrual cups will save the world

I am relatively new to the menstrual cup world, but I LOVE it! I have the Lily Cup compact from Intimina.

 It is the best thing I have ever used for period protection. Seriously! After I had kids I couldn't use tampons any more. They didn't work. Even the largest size would leak. I have been so happy with my Lily Cup! It doesn't leak and I can leave it in all day. It is very comfortable and I often forget I have it in. That may also be a problem, because I often find it is too easy to forget I have it in.

It is a little messy, I must say. But with some practice I've gotten a system down where I can empty it out with minimal mess. I sometimes remove it in the shower, wash the blood down the drain, wash the cup, make sure there is no water in it, and reinsert it. Doing this in the shower makes it somewhat easy.

Using the cup is like using a tampon without an applicator. You do get intimate with your delicate regions, but it is worth the hand washing for this little device. I love the compact design too. The one I have collapses into a little container that is easy to carry and conceal.

Exercise = No Talent Soccer tonight for 1 hour
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Rice Chex cereal with some honey
Toast with peanut butter and honey
Rice cake with hummus
6 piece Swiss cheese
2 Trisket crackers with butter
Mixed nuts
2 pieces of cheese
Blue cheese burger with roasted potatoes with ricotta cheese topping
Mini tomatoes 

So why go to Church?

I am not a church going person. And I can't say I am a believer in God. Not that I don't think there are spiritual influences in this world, I just don't justify those influence with a belief in God. I really hate when people try to witness to me and I have gotten offended when the CEO of the organization I work for sent out a message filled with praises for a "Higher Power" that I don't subscribe to. Unprofessional in my opinion, but Human Resources didn't see it that way.

One of my friends recently posed the question, "What are you going to do in that hour on Sunday anyway?" Well, lots of things and I thought I am fortunate not to have to worry about appeasing a God that will think poorly of me for not going to Church. I'm not going to dis the beliefs of others, I'm just going to say it isn't for me.

I get mad at things that are said and done because of someone's religious beliefs, someone's interpretation of the bible and someone's ideas of what God would want. Like all this recent blow up of same sex marriage and that woman in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses based on her beliefs. I refuse to believe that a God would be so unkind as to deny two people who love each other the right to be bonded. I also refuse to believe that God wouldn't be accepting of the way people are. We recently had a controversy in my town with a religious group holding a seminar on how to pray the gay away and to teach people to witness to their gay friends the power of God's love and not be gay. WTF!!!

I read this article about how secular kids are being raised to be kinder and more accepting than kids who go to church. Most of it had to do with them being accountable for their own actions and not blaming something on God or the Devil. There was also an element of, "well I can do this because I can confess and will be forgiven" so being accountable to someone else (God or the Church) permits bad behavior and unkindness because of that "forgiven" caveat.

Be a good person, be accountable to yourself, don't hurt others (physically or verbally), be kind, don't judge others, be accepting of difference. That is how I'm raising my kids whether God is in their lives or not.

Insomnia

I didn't sleep very well last night. I don't have insomnia because it isn't chronic, but I hate it when I can't sleep at night. I've always been able to sleep, it has never been a problem. I love naps! I wish our society could embrace the nap and allow for it during the day. Like preschool.

Since I was pregnant and had kids I have had bouts of sleepless nights. I'm guessing it is hormone related. I've also been getting night sweats. That is no fun.

Oh the stress

This week has been stressful and busy. I'm organized a Youth Waterfowl Hunting Clinic and I'm not sure it will be successful. Anyway, I relieved this stress by mowing down on some ice cream this morning. It was also a stressful morning at the breakfast table with the kids and my husband telling me that my choice of breakfast is what causes the dilly dallying at the table in the morning. He is always in a rush to get us all out the door in the morning and when the kids dilly dally he get frustrated. That just snowballs into a torrent of crying and high tempers.

Anyway, I've also been sick this week and resting a lot. Which means I haven't been exercising. I also skipped soccer on Wednesday night. I just couldn't manage it. Call me lazy, but I've been recovering from the sickness and feel I deserve a break. I'll get back on it on Monday. Meanwhile, party this Saturday! Octoberfest! Beer and sausage here I come!

Exercise = nothing
Friday, September 11, 2015
Cottage cheese with banana
2 cup tea
Ice cream

Food

This was dinner today.Thursday, September 10, 2015

Dairy Queen for lunch, with my kid topped off with a chocolate dip cone

Muffin cup mini pizzas for dinner, not the best thing for me but they were quick 

Breakfast!

I love breakfast food! Today I made multi-grain pancakes. Then I made a bacon and egg sandwich with those pancakes and dipped it in syrup. Top that!

Still in pain

Well, this "no talent" soccer league I'm in may just be the end of me. My husband and I are in pain. Nothing too serious, muscle aches and joint soreness. But it hurts.The Yoga I did helped a bit. But obviously not enough.

Friday, September 4, 2015
HB egg
Cheese
Kiwi
Toast with butter and peanut butter
DC coffee
Muffin - large
Plantain chips
Pretzels
Bread with goat cheese
Chocolate covered potato chip

New found pleasures

I can't say that I've ever really liked jelly beans. I remember when I was a kid the jelly beans my mom put in my easter basket. They weren't very good and I never ate them. They usually ended up in the trash.

But these days, as an adult, I've discovered I really really like Jelly Belly jelly beans. They have so many interesting flavors. I had an espresso one yesterday and was like WOW! They really captured the flavor. I can get them in bulk from Cash Wise and they are like little bursts of wonderful sweetness. I do need to pace myself though. When I first started eating them I would just eat one at a time a savor it.

But, since I realized that I really like them I've found myself mindlessly mowing them down. Like yesterday, I ate more than half my bag.

I think I may have reverted to my candy stashing ways. When I was in grad school I would stash all kinds of candy in my drawer. I didn't realize I was eating so much sugar until I started keeping a food journal. That's when I realized that I was popping candy all day. Well I just need to be aware of it right?

Exercise = Yoga this morning
Thursday September 3, 2015
HB egg
Cheese
Cottage cheese with kiwi and mini grapes
Toast with butter and HM pear jam
DC coffee
2 cup tea
Jelly beans
Bread with goat cheese
2 piece pork bacon
Triscut crackers and hummus
Oh Man this was bad! - Taco Bell - burrito, chalupa, nachos with cheese sauce, diet Pepsi, Capn' Crunch delights (these things were the grossest thing you will put in your mouth, the grease dripping off them was ridiculous, don't ever get them unless someone dares you)
Salmon, shrimp and broccoli

Ok, no processed food

Ok, I need to get a handle on my eating. Yesterday was as bad as the day before. Since the visit from my parents I have been spiraling into bad eating habits. I need to get on that spinach train again, but I just can't seem to stay on it.  Plus! And I am getting very frustrated with this, I am on week 7 of my "wake up at 5 am and exercise" routine and I haven't lost a pound! Not one! Still sitting at 210! I mean what is going on? Even without doing much to my diet (which isn't that bad in my opinion) I should have seen at least some results right? I should be loosing some fat.

I know I shouldn't be focusing too much on the weight number on the scale, but seriously, I haven't noticed any changes in my body shape either. I pants are still tight. I look at my clothes and think, I only have one pair of long pants that fit me comfortably right now. I am not ready for winter!

So I really need to focus on my diet now. I need to start eating like a kid, or how I would feed my kids. Minimal sugar, smaller portions, and no processed foods. Ok, let's go!

Exercise = none, I really wanted to get up and do yoga this morning but it didn't happen and tonight we have our first "no talent" soccer game, so that will be some exercise
Soccer! 30 minutes

Wednesday September 2, 2015
Shredded wheat cereal with mini grapes
Toast with butter and honey
Some kiwi
2 cup tea
DC coffee
Jelly beans
L/O chicken and rice
Small lemonade and iced tea
Few sips of slushy drink
Pasta with chicken and yellow tomato sauce
Banana

Eating like a kid

Ok, yesterday was bad!

I ate so many sweet things I couldn't count. Plus this morning I made an excuse when my alarm went off at 5:00 to stay in bed and not do my planed Yoga. So here I am recovering for another day.
 
Here is a philosophy...how about I only eat what I would feed my kids. Sometimes as a parent I find my self in a situation with my kids where it is "do as I say not as I do" kind of thing in the food department. Take dessert for example. We have specified dessert nights in our house, 4 nights a week the kids get dessert. However, that doesn't seem to apply to me. I will often wait until the kids go to bed then eat my dessert. I'm sneaky like that. This is what I did last night.

And snacks, I'm not too bad here, but I do have somethings that I've shoved in the back of the cupboard that are out of sight and only I know they are there. Nothing too bad, jelly beans, the occasional bag of chips or cheetos, a candy bar every once in a while.

But then I have to think about it, Why would I eat something that I wouldn't feed my kids? I want them to be healthy and not have too much sugar. I am constantly evaluating what I am feeding them to make sure they get the nutrition they need. So why would I pay so much attention to what they are eating and not do the same for myself. (I write this as I am munching on a bag of chips). 

So eating what they eat shouldn't bee too big a problem. But do I take it a step further and do the same portions? Portion size is big with them. If I started eating the portions they eat, that would be a good start at controlling the amount of food I take in. I'll admit, I am a typical American who fills her plate and cleans it (most of the time). However, I've found myself at restaurants slowing down and feeling full about half way through my meal. That can't be a bad thing can it?

Exercise = nothing
Tuesday September 1, 2015
Toast with peanut butter and honey
Cottage cheese with kiwi
Tiny grapes
DC coffee
2 cup tea
L/O stir fry with elbow macaroni
2 piece Swiss cheese
Bread with butter
Smore cookie
Jelly beans
Chips in the car
Plantain chips
Cheese stick
Ginger soda
Chipolte Chicken and rice
Ice cream with caramel syrup

Paying for a weekend of partying

Holy Cow am I dragging today! Friday night was a big party and I had a fun relaxing day shopping with a friend and NO KIDS OR HUSBAND! We spent the night in a hotel after the Def Leppard concert. And we took full advantage of it. We slept in, we lazed around and watched TV. My friend even did my hair. It was great. Then we had some much needed shopping therapy to pick up some needed and unneeded things.

Saturday night we made it home in time for dinner and I stayed up late with my husband and watched TV. Then Sunday was playground with the kids, kicked the soccer ball around, went to a kid birthday party, had dinner, then over to a friend's who had a blow up water slide in their back yard. We didn't get to bed too late, but it was a busy day.

So now, I feel sleep deprived. I got up this morning to run and just couldn't get into it. I did walk and figured when I got to the track I would run it a couple of times. But when I got to the gate it was LOCKED! Arg! That F'ed up my plan! So I just walked the neighborhood this morning. I was slow but I did it. I just couldn't get my feet to move. Plus I am still sore from standing at the concert all night and dancing in my heels. So I think I'll do Yoga tomorrow to stretch things out and try again on Wednesday.

Exercise = 40 minutes walking

Monday, August 31, 2015
Microwave egg in cup with cheese and slice of ham
2 cup tea
DC coffee
1/2 bag potato chips
Almonds
Small box of Froot Loops
Elbow macaroni with butter, salt, and Parmesan cheese
Bread with butter
Smore cookie
Jelly beans
More chips

Pop corn
2 strips bacon
Egg, bacon, tomato and goat cheese sandwich
Birthday Cake Oreo Blizzard from DQ
Cookie