Shaping up...

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Originally uploaded by bareblueskin

Not a great picture, but it was really late with low light and my cell phone. And I was a bit tipsy... This is what I wore to a pirate costume party. Not so much pirate as mime, dressed as french barista, dressed as pirate. Hmmm.

I took the photo because for the first time in a long time I felt good about how I looked. I fit into clothes I haven't worn in TWO years! And didn't have to suck anything in. Woot!

Mmm. Nothing like a grilled cheese on whole wheat with tomato and avocado. For breakfast. After a meeting with my nutritionst. Did I mention it's Muenster cheese? Mmmmmm.

Black and White Hats

Little Xavier grew out of his blueberry hat, and I've had a request for a new hat, but this time with a matching one for mom, and this time, in black and white! So, Xavier's hat will be black on bottom, white on top, and Emily's hat will be white on bottom, black on top. I bought the yarns months ago but I'm seeing them in two weeks (!) so I'd better get knitting. I managed to make the 6 month hat in a week before, and that was with cotton yarn which was tougher to work with, so I'm hoping that I will be able to crank out these two hats. (holy run-on sentences, Batman!)

That means I won't be able to work on Citron OR my new socks, and once again I have way too many projects sitting around collecting dust.

Rav link for hat project: Black and White Hats

This week has been long and tiring, and I'm struggling with being hungry and getting workouts in at all. This weekend is full of activities - book group, party, outdoor music, and while I do want to go to all of them and see peple I'm just so tired. Maybe tonight I'll skip the workout and just do laundry, knit, take a nap, have dinner, wash dishes, reorganize my apartment...

Parmesan-Cauliflower Fritters

***I found this post sitting in my draft posts, but it's all done as far as I can tell, and I've made this recipe a lot. I think it will be a good staple for fall.***

Sitting at work this afternoon I started thinking about what the heck I was going to make for dinner. It's dreadfully hot, I am sort of out of anything fresh (veg, fruit, meat, dairy, yep, all of it) and I'm NOT going to grocery store and walking my purchases home when it's 90 degrees out and sunny. Perish the thought, or perish myself, right?

I was going to walk through the harvard Square farmer's market on the way home, so I picked up some tomatoes, Narragansett Creamery cheese, local handmade chocolate, etc, but I had already decided to make a recipe that I made for the first time last week, which uses the oven. How crazy is that?

I found myself mentioning this recipe to my sister, to friends, it was that good!

Parmesan-Cauliflower Fritters

Biggest Loser Year 10!

Along with the fall 2010 season of the Biggest Loser I am starting a new challenge for myself in my fitness and weight loss efforts.

I joined a Ravelry group for some added motivation called Biggest Loser Fitness and Knitting*. There is a mini competition where people can sign up to keep track of percentage of weight lost, and will be matched up with motivation buddies and that sort of thing. There are already some discussion threads going about nutrition and exercise.  I am also helping out as assistant moderator.

Of course, since this group is on a knitting site, there will be some knitting and crafting involved. Hopefully there will be a knit-a-long too.

So far my goals are to:
-work out a minimum of 3 days a week
-convince my doctor to take me off blood pressure meds
-strengthen the muscles around my knee and thereby stop the creaking and occasional pain
-continue to lose weight - at least 1 pound a week
-lose 30 pounds by December 31, 2010
-buy and use a heart rate monitor to keep my workouts more consistent and more productive

The premiere is tonight! Off to buy healthy groceries, work out, and watch the show.

*You have to be a member of Ravelry to join the group.

Two dueling guitars - one plays American heartland, the other a screetching rock riff. two skaters trip by in the street, inline and old school big wheels paired together. In a back yard big band horns rehearshal takes place as 4, no 5 runners pass by. And yes, woodsmoke on the air to my door. This is my neighborhood at 7:25 pm on a Wednesday.

Grocery shopping

Thursday after work I went grocery shopping. While I was sitting at my desk at work, I wrote out a perfunctory list. I realized at the end of my struggle in the frozen food aisle that I had pretty much stuck to my list. I did buy a few extra items, but I also didn't get two things. I NEVER stick to my list. This is a milestone!

Here's what I bought:

*items that were on my list

*Yogurt
*Cheese sticks
*Dubliner cheese
*Cottage cheese
*Cheese (yes, after all that, I needed to write down just "cheese" because I didn't have enough. Yes, I bought 4 distinct kinds of cheese. No, I was not having a wine and cheese party. Shush)
*Zucchini
*Spinach
*Broccoli
*Tomato sauce
Mushrooms
Frozen smoothie stuff
*Grapes
*Melon
*Triscuits
*Beans
Bananas
Sweet Potato
Bagged lettuce (I've been craving salad and figured, why not?)
Carrots
Croutons
Skinny Cow single serve Cookies and Cream ice cream
Thin Crust Margherita Pizza (It was on sale!)
Still, my purchases came to more than I thought they would. I even bought lot of things on sale or in their natural state, and tried to stick to my list.
Total spent - $64.95
11 out of 23 items on sale
Total saved - $9.26
Most expensive item - 24 pack of low fat string cheese
Least expensive item - bananas, $.69/lb., got 2 for $.50
 
I'm just so irked at the cost of decent food. Ugh. Sure, I could have only bought sale items and store brand, and trekked around the city from store to store cashing in on the bargains. I don't have a car. The grocery store I go to is in the city and has a high mark up. I am however able to walk home from the store and eliminate the need for a taxi or long bus ride and total exhaustion, thought I do tend to collapse once I get home from the sheer irritation factor of having to go to the store at all.

I'm also kind of shocked at how healthy this list is and the fact that there's no chocolate (unless you count the tiny single serving of Skinny Cow and let's face it, it's probably not 'real' anything. My eating has really changed for the better!

Slow progress, or maybe not...

I finally saw some change on the scale this week. After three weeks of nothing, I'm 3.4 down, bring me to 18.4 down since April 24, 2010 (my starting off point). I should be excited, thrilled, blah blah blah. The only ting running through my head lately is "how long until I get to my goal?" Or even "how long until I get to my mid-way goal of 200?" Seems like a long time away. Forever. I've been using a free App on my iPod Touch called Lose It! to track food and exercise. It lets me put in a goal and plan how much I want to lose per week up to two pounds, so two pounds it is. Even with that formidable weekly target I will not hit 200 until January 6, 2011 (according to the program). I thought - that can't be right, let me do the math myself. I printed out a blank calendar sheet for September 1 - December 31 and wrote in what my weight should be each week with the 2 pound loss. Well, the tech program is right. January 6, 2011, If I stay on track and lose that much each week. If I never give in to temptation and don't hit any plateaus. Ugh.

*Yeah, if I cared about people knowing how much I weighed before, I guess I don't now. Whatever the number is now it less than my highest. So figure out whatever you want. Thbbft!

Taking time for breath

During my lunch break today I must have heated and reheated my lunch 3 separate times while poking through emails, printing out invoices, poking around the internet, and playing on Facebook. And squirming around in my chair, hunched with stress and back pain.

I decided to try one of Kripalu's Audio Yoga Breaks for a little mindfulness to break up the day. How do I feel? Is this how I want to feel? I listened to Yoga Taps with Danny Arguetty. It was about 4 and a half minutes long, and guided me through a standing sort of soft pummeling of my body, working through the limbs, belly, butt, back, etc. as a way to increase circulation, stretch a little, and just step out of the stress of the day for a few minutes. It was great! I felt calmer, less tense, more awake, and more present in my day. I think I might start doing that when I hit my 2pm slump.

Kripalu has about a dozen of these 'breaks' posted on their site. Try one and let me know what you think.