Weight Loss Wednesday-Food Edition

I’ve been on a kick where I just don’t want to put in the effort to prepare meals.  I think it’s a delayed hangover from the Whole30, as that plan was just so labor intensive.  I can’t cook 2 hours a day, every day and get all the sitting on the couch and watching TV time that I require in at the same time.  And since I hate buying convenience food for my house, I’ve been conveniently ordering takeout and driving through all the drive thrus.  All of them.

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So I finally broke down yesterday and gave Target all of my money.  In return, I got some food to eat at home which requires little to no prep.  I bought a bunch of protein bars.  I also grabbed some gluten-free, organic burritos since they were on sale and you can’t get much lazier than a burrito.  Seriously, you don’t even need utensils.

I also bough these:

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They only have 7 grams of sugar and less than 150 calories while still packing 4 grams of fiber.  They have chia seeds in them if that’s your thing but I just like that they have the texture of a no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookie.  They were also on sale, which is why I picked them up originally. 

Actually, looking at my receipt, the only things I bought that were not on sale were ranch dressing and ketchup.  You see where my priorities lie…

I speak the truth.

Thursday Thoughts

On giving myself pep talks… 

 I do this a lot and think that I use these little conversations with myself to prepare for changes, stress, and just processing information.  As a sensitive girl in a rough and tumble world, sometimes my self-esteem and” nerves” take a beating.  So I take a few minutes a day and just run through things in my head.  

For example, if I have a meeting with someone at work who I know is particularly difficult, I try to give myself guidelines to follow in my interactions with that person like, “You will be polite and professional.  You will smile and make eye contact and reassure them that they’ve been heard.  You will not allow them to dismiss you, disrespect you, or steamroll you.”  That’s obvious stuff folks, but you’d be surprised how much it helps lower anxiety.  (Of course, I always try to be as prepared as possible, which also helps with my nervousness.)  I liken it to giving little kids warnings like, “In 3 minutes we’re going to head to take a bath” or,  “In 15 minutes we’re going to bed. “  I just need a minute to get myself in the right frame of mine.

I believe you have my stapler.

I also tend to take poor interactions with people too personally.  This is particularly an issue when online dating.  I have yet to have a great experience with online dating.  Maybe it’s because I expect someone to be polite when trying to start a relationship.  Also, I expect someone not to get vicious if I take more than 20 minutes to respond to an email or politely refuse to allow them to come to my house for a “first date”.  Basically, I expect common courtesy and common sense.  

But it’s online!  And I’ve read the comments in the News section on Yahoo!  I know that the internet is where the crazies go to nest.  Then why do I take it to heart when someone tells me I’m fat and ugly when I turn them down.   Why do I get surprised that a guy turns out to be married or lies about having kids?  I DON’T KNOW.  That’s why.  

LET IT GO, WOMAN

I’m still learning how to let this roll off of my back but lately I’ve just been talking myself away from the feelings.  If someone really thought I was too fat and ugly to date, they wouldn’t email me and tell me I’m pretty or have a nice smile or eyes.  They wouldn’t spend the time or energy to make the initial contact with me.  However, if a guy was really a nice, decent person, then they would never attack you for politely declining their advances.  Also, if a guy who clearly just wants a hookup and says so to you and on his profile contacts me, when I’m only looking for a relationship, he is probably inebriated or ignorant.  

The last thing I’m going to mention is road rage.  I have it.  Bad.   The fact that Minnesota just made a list for best drivers in the country is a complete mystery.  I’m pretty sure half the gray hair on my head is because of Minnesota drivers.  For some reason, if I have a bad commute, I tend to carry that with me the entire freaking day.  I need to work on that….  Yeah, that’s the one I’m going to have problems with.

It's go time

Too Tight Tuesday

This post is inspired by the day of the week and my pants.  Because it’s Tuesday and my pants are too tight.  Ever have one of those days where you just grab a pair of black pants and they turn out to be the ones from senior year of college and they’re way too tight.  But you’re already running late so you make them fit and then you go to work.  And then around 2 PM you’re irritated with the world so you eat a Twix, which doesn’t help your pants fit any better?

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Yeah, me neither….

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Anyway, since I am trying (when I’m not unreasonably emotional.  Seriously, even I don’t like me today) to be healthier and lose some lbs, I figure once a month I should revisit the tight pants to get a real idea of inches I’m losing.  For instance, I know that these pants didn’t fit in April because they’re was an argument ( in my head) about whether or not they should go to Goodwill or stay in the closet.  The closet won and now I have to pay the piper for letting me keep them. 

Wish me luck!

Manic Monday

 This weekend was sort of random.  Friday, after a horrible day at work, I ventured to Barnes and Noble and Ulta instead of going to the gym.  Turns out that I prefer pricy British fashion magazines and $8 lip balm over working out.  Who knew!  But it was nice and relaxing and sort of exactly what I needed.  I mean, I didn’t need to spend the money, but it was nice to not think about that for a second.  

 

I like to pretend that I have a country house.

Lip nectar of the gods

On Saturday I was supposed to do something at Lake Calhoun with a friend but it rained so instead I went to the gym for a killer workout that included day 1 of half marathon training.  The good news is that I didn’t die.  The bad news is that I can only run for 90 seconds without wheezing.  

That evening I met friends for appetizers and drinks at The Blackbird Café in Minneapolis.  The place could have been really cool but just wasn’t fantastic. They were out of everything we tried to order.  WHO RUNS OUT OF CHEESE?  The waitress had an attitude and my total was wrong.  Well, it was both right and wrong.  I ordered a $7 glass of sauvignon blanc and was charged $11.50 a glass because my waitress thought sauvignon blanc sounded like Sancerre.  Anyway, I paid $40 for two glasses of wine and bread and butter.  I will not be returning.  I think this week we might go to Borough and hopefully that’s a better experience.  It should be affordable too because they have an awesome Parlour menu.

Money, Money, Money Monday

Speaking of working on my financial fitness, the lease on my outrageously pricy apartment expires at the end of September.  I think I’ve found another place that’s half the price of what I’m paying now and less than ten minute drive maximum to work.  (Right now I’m about 30 minutes away from work unless it snows.  Then I’m 3 hours away…) The bad part is that it’s street parking and doesn’t have a dishwasher (#firstworldproblems).  

 BUT, it’s in a really cool neighborhood right next to an awesome park/”beach”/golf course, is super cheap with all bills included, free access to a washer dryer on the same level as my unit and only shared with two other people (both guys so really, that’s like sharing with one lady-person), and the street parking access is pretty fantastic for what it is.  What it is not is a garage, which is what I have currently but I’m too poor for a garage.

I put down a deposit, which the guy is supposed to hold until all of my rental verifications, income checks, etc. go through.  Hopefully, my people respond in a timely fashion and I can secure it soon so I can stop worrying about it.

It’s also less than 600 square feet so it satisfied my desire to live in a tiny house while also meeting my need to be too lazy to actually build a tiny house. 

How was your weekend? 

How do you save money even though in your mind you’re a billionaire?

Weight Loss Wednesday

Happy Hump Day!  I totally meant to do a post on Friday about my workouts and on Monday to recap my weekend but a lack of pictures and time got in the way.  I’m trying to get copies of weekend pictures but my friends are slacking sending me the ones they took as mine are all blurry and out of focus, per usual.  I’ll do a post this coming Friday with my workouts as of late.  

Speaking of pictures, I can’t really do a real before for a before and after right now.  I don’t have a full length mirror at my house and the only way I can get an ankle to head picture is if I stand on the toilet. 

Also, I didn’t weight today.  I think that weighing every week, especially on a week with a holiday in it, is discouraging for me.  Since I’m working out, I’m also building muscle and I don’t want fluctuations because of that affecting my motivation.  So I’ll probably be weighing and doing measurements once a month.  I can tell you that I wore shorts with a 32” waist on Saturday.  If I’m correct, that translates to a size 12, which I’m pretty excited about.  The clothes in my closet range from a size 17 (my junior’s department Levi’s) to size 12.  I can wear all of them but they look drastically different.  17’s require a belt and give the droopy butt effect.  The 12 fits like a glove except for the muffin top at top.  I’m an if-it-zips-it-fits kinda gal, so I’m okay with the muffin top.

Embrace the muffin top.

I’ll touch on what I ate over the holiday weekend a little better later on, but just know that I ate crap (mostly brats and patriotic cookies), but not nearly enough crap to exceed my caloric output.   And yesterday I had dental work done and can’t use my bottom back molars to chew, so I’m eating what I can eat until the throbbing stops.  Yesterday was a lot of mashed up French fries and milkshakes.  DON’T JUDGE ME.

Captain America loves these cookies.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday weekend and didn’t eat nearly as many cookies as I did.