My Brain is Fried

Good morning!

I slept like a rock last night, maybe a little too hard because I totally did not want to get up this morning, but then I thought of my short week, so I hopped right out of bed 🙂

After showering and checking my email, I finally figured out what I wanted for breakfast. Something easy, simple and yummy! Multigrain cheerios, skim, strawberries, banana and a gree tea 🙂

It hit the spot, but I now find myself craving peanut butter! Guess that will have to make it’s way into my morning snack somehow 🙂

Not sure if I have mentioned this, but at my house I don’t have cable so I hardly ever watch TV. I used to spend my time reading a book or magazine before bed to wind down my brain (and body) but ever since I have been staying at Jason’s…it’s watch TV, go to bed. In the morning, I immediately turn on the TV, even if I am not watching it!

It’s nice to be around cable when there is a particular show I want to watch, but other than that my brain is completely fried. I woke up this morning with the hint of a small headache and I know it is from TV. So tonight, I will leave Jason watching TV and I will go into bed and read a book. My goal is to try to do something that relaxes me every night this week 🙂 Let’s see if that happens!

My workout plans for tonight are strength training and taking Trixer for a nice long walk in the park <—another thing that relaxes me 🙂 I think Jason has a bike ride, so I am on my own for dinner! I will try to come up with something fun though 🙂

Have a great Tuesday everyone! See you tonight 🙂

PS. Do you guys watch a lot of TV? Do you feel a TV overload when you do? (Just making sure I am not weird!)

Not So Spicy

Hey there!

I’ve been a busy bee since getting home from work! The kids were great today and the day seemed to fly by, let’s hope the rest of the work days are like that!

I didn’t have my usual morning snack because the kids were keeping me very busy, but when my tummy growled around 10:30, I figured I could wait at least 45 more minutes before fixing lunch.

Lunch: Spinach salad, grapes, mandarin oranges, cucumber and Annie’s dressing.

Kashi cheddar crackers on the side with carrots and hummus too! Guess I was in an orange-y mood 🙂

Dessert: Dark chocolate raisins and dark chocolate covered pretzels 🙂
The kids and I did math and reading, I helped build a train track and then I helped Grace clean off her bookshelf. Around 2 pm, I finally took a break for a snack:

Cheerios!

(Soon after this pic I ate the small apple leftover from Panera yesterday, no pic!)

My boss came home early, yay! I love having a little extra time on my hands to get things done 🙂 I came home (and yes, I am still crashing at Jason’s, enjoying every moment in front of the AC!) and walked Trixie around the block. I then sat up my bike on the trainer for a much needed sweat session!

I rode for about 45 (sweaty) minutes and felt most of the water weight slide off 🙂 While preparing our Spicy Tempeh Stir fry, I snacked on half of this mocha flavored Kashi bar: Ohhhh..I have a new love!! Haha. Just had to get that out there 🙂

Now on to dinner. I got this recipe from Cooking Light, but beware because I made major changes to it. As I was cooking this meal, I felt like it wouldn’t taste good. I noticed that they use a ton of soy sauce and not enough spice, or veggies for that matter. So here is my recipe, altered from Cooking Light 🙂

Spicy Tempeh Stir fry

(makes 2 servings if you have a hungry boyfriend, 3 or 4 if not 🙂

3/4 lb asparagus (hard ends snapped off)

1/3 cup vegetable broth

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce

2 teaspoons corn starch

2 tablespoons sesame oil, divided

1 (8 oz) package of tempeh

1.5 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (we used red pepper relish)

1 (6 oz) package shitake mushrooms

1 zucchini (sliced)

1 squash (sliced)

3 cups hot cooked instant brown rice

In a bowl combine veg broth, corn starch and soy sauce. Stir with a whisk until smooth. Set aside.

Pour 1 tbs of sesame oil in large nonstick skillet over med-high heat. Add tempeh, stir fry for a few minutes or until golden brown. Set aside.

Heat remaining tbs of sesame oil in pan. Add garlic, red pepper, asparagus, zucchini, squash, mushrooms. Stir until asparagus is cooked and crisp. Add broth mixture and bring to a boil. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until thickened (<—did not thicken so I poured extra sauce down the drain) Add tempeh and cook until thoroughly heated. Serve over brown rice.

First of all, this was not spicy at all! Jas and I added hot sauce on top and I practically poured a whole shaker of pepper on mine, haha. Second of all, there was way to much sauce leftover, so I poured whatever hadn’t soaked into the veggies and tempeh down the drain.

Jas and I were talking about what would make this better, and we both agree onion, broccoli and carrots. Also more spice!! Other than that, it wasn’t a bad meal. After chugging three bottles of water afterwards, I guess you could say that I am pretty full 🙂

FYI, there may be some dark chocolate in my future 🙂 As for now, I am off to take a shower and relax on the couch, 3 more days till vacation! Yay!

Hope you had a great Monday, see you bright and early in the mornin‘.

Birthday Week!

Good Monday morning!

For the sake of time, here are my pics of what I ate last night (no spicy tempeh, sorry! That will come tonight, promise 🙂

Guess you could say I was in a munchy mood yesterday, haha. I went to bed at 11, and to my surprise had no trouble falling asleep!

This morning I woke up still full from yesterday’s eats, so I decided to take a shower and get ready for work first. After that I still wasn’t hungry, but I figured I’d better eat anyway. I had a mug of green tea:

A Thomas’ whole wheat english muffin with pb and Smuckers Simply blueberry jam, a sliced banana on top. (The remainder of that naner on the side)I can not wait until Thursday!!! Jason is going to meet me at work and take me out to one of my favorite places to eat in Charlotte 🙂 I will definitely be splurging that night (duh) so I am going to try to eat healthy for most of the week 🙂 Friday we are going to see 311 in concert and then Saturday it’s my favorite holiday! The end of this week packs so much fun that I feel like these last four days at work are going to be a breeze!

Though I have been “active” these last few days, it doesn’t really feel as if I’ve done anything. I guess my brain is making me think: no sweat-no workout. Today I plan on coming home and riding my bike on the trainer for an hour. Oh how I miss my bike!

Guess I’d better get ready to head out the door, have a great Monday and let’s hope that it isn’t a manic one 🙂 See you this afternoon!

The Day Got Away

*Sigh*

Sorry for being MIA all day, we kind of lost track of time and made ourselves unexpectedly busy! I didn’t wake up until almost ten (I never do that! And I actually felt a little groggy at first). I sat and read blogs and munched on some granola while waiting for Jason to wake up.

I made him a breakfast of an egg and cheese sandwich, but that took all of the eggs, so I ate a simple bowl of Oikos Greek yogurt with strawberries, blackberries and Kashi Vive on top.

After breakfast we started cleaning like mad! Jason did laundry and swept, I did the dishes, made the bed and swept some more. I also did some of the laundry too 🙂 The cat gave me the evil eye the whole time, guess he wasn’t getting enough attention!
Then we made a paper run. We are trying to be more frugal these days, so we went to work on coupon clipping 🙂

This made me smile because when I was little my mom would get a Sunday paper and tell me to go through it and clip the coupons that we could use, I of course, saw this as a great honor, haha.

Jas and I practically shredded the whole paper with scissors, and then decided we needed to make a grocery list since I am staying here for another week. We had plans for the lake too, so I was excited to hurry up and go grocery shopping so we could get there!

But, being a bad food planner like I have been lately, we forgot about lunch! We figured we should go ahead and eat while we were out, so Panera it was. At Panera I drank a Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi.

Then our buzzer buzzed and out came the food! I ordered half of the Mediterranean Veggie sandwich with a cup of Black Bean soup and an apple.

I ate everything but the apple. Mostly because I wanted to save room for a cookie! Can’t seem to go out to eat at Panera without sharing one of their Choc. Chip cookies with Jason 🙂

For except this time, I ate my half…

…and then half of his half, haha. Guess you could say I was a little cookie monster today 🙂

I also finished off the few chips he had left in his bag.

It was finally time to go grocery shopping at Wal-Mart <–starting to hate that store more and more! Jason and I took the camera with us so we could print out some of the pics on them, and while looking at them I started to get furious because their stupid printer ruined them!! Then I talk to the person behind the camera counter and she says “Oh, well sometimes that printer does that, we are supposed to be getting a new one” Then I say “Can you please make us a copy of the ones that got ruined?” And she tells me we have to use the machine that just ruined the ones we made!!

Hmm don’t you think you should put a sign up saying that the printer is messed up? So my boyfriend and I don’t spend 45 minutes there sorting through pictures that are bad? Talk about bad business. We just threw away the ones that came out bad and decided to go somewhere else to get prints next time. 😦 ARG.

By the time we got done with that and grocery shopping it was 4 o’clock 😦 The lake closes to swimmers at 6 😦 Plus, we still had to go home and put away the groceries. So, needless to say we didn’t make it to the lake and for some reason, I feel really stressed. I can’t seem to get out of this funk I have gotten myself in.

Jason keeps telling me to not stress so much and to relax because it is still the weekend. Maybe some deep breathing will calm me down? Maybe thinking of my two week vacay that starts on Friday will calm me down? Maybe knowing that Thursday is my BDay will calm me down?

Ok, I feel better 🙂 I haven’t even showered today, my hair is frizzy and my face oily, but after all…aren’t Sundays supposed to be lazy??

I have a Spicy Tempeh Stir-Fry planned for tonight! Can’t wait to make it 🙂 Guess I better go put on my jammies.

See you tonight!

Oh and PS. I also got in a strength routine this morning, here is what I did:

3×20 shoulder press

3×20 bench dips

60 push ups

3×15 anterior arm raises

200 bicycle crunches

3×20 arm curls

Food Coma

Ugh. Can’t possibly eat anymore!! My tummy feels like it is going to pop right out of my pants. Time for some stretchy pants!!

We happily went the local watering hole (aka Johnny B’s) for some pizza and beer!

Jason has a “beer list” here. They give him a list of 55 beers to try, and after he knocks so many off the list he gets prizes! And after all 55 are gone he gets a huge pizza party. My man dreams big I tell ya, lol. We have 35 more to go and so far he has won two beer glasses and a $10 gift certificate! Woot woot!

I was happy to help him get a Yuengling Light off the list tonight 🙂

He wanted to show off the shirt that he got from his race today!Hehe. What a cutie. The snack is for Snake Mountain in Boone. It is supposedly the tallest mountain out there and he conquered that thing today, go Jason! He also had a little hat, but he didn’t wear it out.

We ordered our usual: the Garden Pizza that comes with green pepper, spinach, onion, mushrooms, tomatoes and broccoli on top.

As always, it did not dissapoint! This place is THE BEST pizza making place ever! I heart the crust and never restrict myself from eating every single bite.

Please use your imagination and times this slice by 3!

I do feel a little bad about not working out today, but I am trying to remind myself that those things happen! I had a strength workout planned but never got around to it, so maybe tomorrow will be a different day! Even though I ran 3 miles yesterday I feel like I haven’t done anything in ages haha. Oh well, I just hate missing a workout, but it’s not the end of the world 🙂

Jason and I went to rent more Lost since we are eager mcbeavers and can’t seem to wait for it to come on Netflix, haha. He is currently waiting for me to come snuggle with him on the couch, so that is what I shall do!

I hope everyone’s Saturday has been exactly what you wanted it to be 🙂 Continue to have a good weekend! See you in the morning, perhaps after some cartoon watching, hehe. G’night ya’ll!

Locked Out

Hey friends!

Today has been a great day 🙂 Having “me” time was wonderful, though I still missed Jason of course 🙂

This morning while doing errands, I sipped on a coffee:

I then went to Pier 1, Target, Book-A-Million and Shoe Carnival just to browse. Shoe Carnival is really close to the movies, so I just left my car parked there and walked up to the theatre to see what time “UP” started.

I had about 30 minutes, so I went into Sports Authority and bought a Cliff bar and a Diet Dr. Pepper for the movie 🙂

The brownie Cliff bar makes me feel like I am eating cake or something, it’s so yummy and sinfully delicious! <–Well, not really sinful, because it's good for ya!

I loved the movie!!! It was so cute and creative 🙂 It also made me cry about three times, it left me feeling very imaginative and light-hearted 🙂 Love those types of movies 🙂

As you can guess, I was really, really hungry after leaving there! Bad Stacey for not planning lunch items! I had to go to Wal-Mart anyway for dinner ingredients (a new dish!!) for tomorrow, so I bought an apple to snack on until I got home.

(Oops, forgot to take a pic first, haha)

Once home, I made a plate of Kashi crackers and goat cheese to munch on.

Looks like someone smells the goat cheese, hehe.Well, this is where the story changes! While I was munching on my snack, I was also getting Trixie all excited for a walk in the park, saying “You wanna go for a ride?? Huh huh? You wanna walk in the park?” Haha. She started barking and wagging her tail, so I grabbed her leash and collar and headed out the door.

Once I slammed the door, I realized I had just locked the keys inside the house! Arg!!!! Jason lives in mosquito-ville, and they were all around me! Luckily I had my phone, but Jason was still an hour away, so I sat in his car and waited. And waited. And waited.

Yep, it got a little hot in there, but to me, it was better than being eat up by mosquitos! It was kind of like sitting in a sauna, or maybe my house, haha 🙂

Finally, Jason and his friend Lance pulled up and he immediately gave me the keys to the house! The AC has never felt so good. My plans to walk Trixie were nixed, but I don’t think she minds because she is sleeping like a baby right now.

Jason told me all about his 100 mile Blood, Sweat and Gears ride. Sounds like my baby did great on the bike today! He did mention that he is in some serious need of calories, so I think we are heading out to the local watering hole for some pizza, beer and music 🙂 Fine with me!

In that case, I better go touch up my makeup, or what’s left of it! See you tonight 🙂

PS. Doesn’t the dog from UP look exactly like my Trixie? I was thinking that throughout the whole movie!!

(Except for the white parts, haha)

The Day is Young

Good morning…er, afternoon 🙂

This girl woke up at 8:30, fixed a mug of tea and sat on the couch and watched cartoons all morning! I can’t even remember the last time I did that! Felt like I was seven again 🙂

Last night I fell asleep while watching “He’s Just Not That Into You”…I got to see half of it though, but don’t think I will finish it. But I still have Nick and Norahs! Yesterday when I was renting the movie, the guy at the register said “You have a late fee on this account. Actually it’s for Nick and Norah” and he started laughing. Yes, it was a tad embarrasing to be renting the movie I had just turned in..but at least it have him a big laugh.

At 10 o’clock this morning my tummy finally rumbled, so I scrounged in the kitchen for some breakfast. I came up with Oikos vanilla greek yogurt, a peach and some pineapple. Blended together with one of my homemade granola bars crumbled on top 🙂

I keep thinking that at this moment, Jason is hauling ass up there in the mountains! He will be home later tonight, he will also be very tired, so I doubt we are going to go anywhere, which is fine with me because we have more Lost to watch!

My day is going to be filled with whatever I want to do. Maybe I’ll use my free movie pass and go see a matinee? Maybe I’ll browse the book section at Goodwill? Maybe Trixie and I will go for a picnic later? The day is young and it is mine to conquer!

See you guys this afternoon! Enjoy your Saturday!

PS. Do you guys ever go to a movie alone? I used to all the time when I was single. One time, Trixie and I traveled to Virginia Beach for a two day vacay by ourselves. Doing outings alone has never bothered me, what about you?

My Story

…but first, my eats!

After the last post I went for a glorious three mile run.

The sun was beating down on me, I sweating a ton and I’ve never felt faster in my life!!!! I seriously need a Garmin so I can tell how much time it took me! I guess those sprints at the park the other night really did some magic 🙂

After getting back, I only had 15 minutes before I needed to leave for work, that’s why I am not posting my story until now 🙂 At work I had a Morningstar Veggie burger on a Thomas’ whole wheat english muffin with carrots, apples and hummus on the side.

Dark chocolate pretzels for dessert!
The kids and I walked to the park and almost ten minutes later came walking back home, haha. I think I had underestimated the heat out there!

Around 5 I heard a bowl of cereal calling my name:

After being released from my nannying duties, I headed to the video store to pick up some girlie movies for tonight! My picks:

I absolutely love Nick and Norah’s!!!!!!!!!! It is the cutest movie ever 🙂 The soundtrack is pretty awesome too! Never seen the other one, but I am hoping that it is not too cheesy!

There is nothing more that I wanted then to come hot, take a shower (!) and DRINK A BEER, haha. I felt so gross at work today, ugh! When I walked into Jason’s house I was greeted by this sweet message on the dry erase board:

🙂 That made me smile. It’s so weird being at his house without him. Kind of scary and kind of lonely, but I know he will be back tomorrow 🙂 Plus, I have my animals to snuggle up with 🙂

I took my sweet precious time in the shower and as promised to myself, once I got out I cracked open a Landshark:

Luckily, there was no need to cook tonight because Jas had left me some leftovers from the other night! Yay!

For dinner: A spinach salad with grape tomatoes and Amy’s Poppyseed dressing. Penne past with diced tomatoes, spinach and kidney beans on top. Sprinkled with cheese, of course 🙂This did the trick! My tummy is satisfied and I don’t feel overly full. Just right 🙂

Now, I can finally share my story with you guys.

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My Story

I have never been obese, but I have been overweight.

When I was a little girl my mom used to joke that I would eat a shoe if she put it in front of me on a plate. Meaning- I ate everything that I was given. My sister was the picky eater, but not this girl!

I never cared about my weight or what others thought about me until high school. One of my best friends was bulimic, I knew that I didn’t want to lose weight by taking it that far, so I started by taking small steps and drinking diet soda’s and eating less candy. I bought a Tae Bo tape and did it about three times a week. Nope, didn’t lose weight.

So I stopped caring. During my early college years I ate whatever I wanted, but I also was working out. I justified eating Wendy’s or Arby’s every other day by walking two miles on a treadmill. I’d say “Well, you’ve earned it because you exercised today”

A few months after this, I lost a loved one. Their death affected me dramatically and I gained six pounds in two weeks. I got to my heaviest weight ever of 136 (I realize this isn’t a big number, but on a 5’4 girl, it’s noticable, especially since I have a small frame)

Seeing this on the scale made me insane. I was so angry with myself for letting go of my body. Not only that but I was in a terrible relationship with a guy while all of this was going on. The two year “relationship” that I had with my ex were the worst years of my life.

It was my low point. The point where I lost all self-worth, dignity, charisma and just EVERYTHING. Sometimes I think about my past and just cry because I feel so lucky to have Jason. He is my saving grace. I never want to be that low again, and I know I never will 🙂

Needless to say, after seeing that number on the scale, I wanted a change. But I didn’t know how to go about, the right way, that is. So I cut all sweets and sodas out of my diet. I didn’t eat past seven. I only ate three meals a day. Bad idea.

It literally got to the point where I would just smell desserts that Jason had (as seen below).

Weird, I know. The thing is, is that I would do this for several days straight and then binge eat like crazy!! Little did I know that binge eating is a disorder, even if you aren’t making yourself throw up. Restricting myself this much only made me gain weight. After six months of this cycle I couldn’t take it anymore. I thought “There has to be some kind of balance!”

With the help of Jason, I learned to incorporate small desserts in every day. I found out that having dessert is not going to make me go back to that bad place again. Having a soda is not going to cause all of my life and health to come crashing down on me. For the most part, my binge eating was emotional. I was scared. I was scared to be a different person than I was in that relationship. I was scared to be Stacey again. I was scared to be carefree because it meant no control. But I have control.

I’ve learned that I have control over everything that I do. Not ever being that low again means that I am supposed to make changes.

Jason and I started going to the gym together. I started reading a ton of health magazines. My recipe collection grew immensely and I learned that everything is okay in moderation. Being healthy is a lifestyle and a choice. And I choose to be healthy. I choose to be active. Not because I am scared of going back to that place, but because I love doing it. It makes me happy. It actually makes me euphoric.

We started running together:

And Jason, wanting to share his love of cycling, bought me a road bike, so now we do that together too:I found a passion for food and fitness and joined the Dietetic Technician program at school. My knowledge about healthy living and eating has increased so much! I find myself constantly wanting to learn more about all of it. Which is why there are plans for me to go into Exercise Science the year after next!

Partially, this post is also for my love. Thank you for saving me when I needed to be saved. You have given me so much support and love that I am forever grateful for 🙂 I can only hope that I am doing the same for you. Here’s to the rest of our lives together.

Our bodies are our temples. They carry us around day in and day out. Friends and boyfriends will come and go. In the end, all you really have is yourself. So take care of you. Our bodies take care of us everyday, so why not take care of it? If you are struggling with making changes, you can do it. You just have to believe. It has to come from within. I’ve learned to let my beauty shine from within first, and then maybe, if I am lucky it will shine on the outside as well.

I say all of the time that I want to change someone’s life, or make someone a better person, but what I don’t realize is that I’ve made ME a better person 🙂

Back To Boone

No, not me! Jason!

Jason is heading back to Boone tonight for a 100 mile bike race in the mountains!! He won’t be here tonight, and I will miss him dearly 🙂 He is coming back late Saturday night, but I will still be staying at his house while he is away. We kissed and hugged our goodbyes this morning…am I being a little dramatic?? Haha. It’s hard to be at someone’s house without them, doesn’t feel right.

This morning I woke up at 7:30 and decided to have some green tea while I pondered over what to have for breakfast.

After a good 30 minutes, I decided on Kashi waffles with pb. I smashed some blackberries on top of them and added a little syrup 🙂 It was very delicious if I may say so myself 🙂
I said goodbye to Jason and put on my workout clothes and headed out the door. I really wanted to run today, but there is nowhere to run around Jason’s house, so I went to the gym thinking I was going to do the elliptical and the stairs..

Oh my goodness!!! When I pulled into the gym, there was not a parking spot in sight! What, does everyone have this Friday off or something??!! I finally found one about a mile away from the door, but then I knew that if I walked in that door I would hate my workout.

For some reason, I really hate going to the gym in the middle of the day. My time to go is around 4 AM when noone is around. Right around 6 it starts getting crowded and it gets so hot, musty and just suffocating in there, so I opted out.

I will be sacrificing a shower before work just so I can run! My plan is to go to my house, do my run and post “my story” from there before going into work at 1:30. The shower will just have to wait until tonight, ewww, I know!

Jason requested oatmeal bars to take on his ride and they just got outta the oven! The smells that filled the house while they were cooking made me want to eat, so I ate the other half of my Cliff Mojo bar. Hmmm maybe I will like it better the second time around??

Nope. 😦 Maybe I need to try a different flavor. Then again, it might just be that I am not a big nut fan. I rarely eat nuts because I don’t like the way they taste, or the aftertaste they have. <—Weirdo.

The oat bars are done, and I have written a little note on top to let my baby know that I used an extra, special ingredient:

Haha. What a cornball.

I am going to take two with me to work today to give to my boss to see if that’s something they might like, or want the kids and I to make one day!

Holy crap. The day is just slipping away! I better go if I wanna run (and I do!). See you soon 🙂

I Got Lost in Lost

Sorry for not posting last night, right after dinner Jas and I started watching Lost….and I totally love that show!!!

While we watched I managed to do a light workout: (done with 8 lb weights)

65 pushups

3×12 anterior arm raises

3×15 bicep curls

4×15 shoulder press

3×15 overhead dips

This didn’t exactly feel strenuous, but I am glad I did something!

We went to our favorite Mexican place, Tequila’s, for dinner. I got my usual! A veggie wrap with rice, red pepper, zuccini, squash, onion, mushrooms and refried beans. Sour cream and a few tortilla chips on the side 🙂

It was yummy like always!!

(x2 because I went back for the other half!)

Dessert was a piece of dark chocolate that I got from Boone 🙂

Well, I am about to go make myself some breakfast and then you will see me back here! Also, be on the lookout for “my story” sometime this morning 🙂 I may go to the gym first and then post it, we will see!