Awesome.
THANKS SO GOOD!
I am now dying to try this!
a quickie
March 31, 2008, 9:46 am
Filed under: Uncategorized
Filed under: Uncategorized
well i did get completely O2C on Friday night (especially after i found out that i didn’t get the job at the children’s activity center, boo!)
I tried to be good with the drinks but people started buying o-bombs and other bombs and even though i kept asking for the sugar free red bull i have no idea if i actually got it. plus i devoured half of a brisket sandwich when i got home. but i hadn’t really had dinner so… i’m calling it “ok”
saturday we did nothing, Bear made biscuits and gravy (i estimate it wasn’t TOO bad for you – mini biscuits were 3 for 150 cals, and i had 4, plus the gravy was just sausage, flour and milk so…) then later i decided i had to eat a lot of trader joe’s mini quiches
so good! 2 are about 150 cals and i probably had like um well 6? 8? 12? SHIT.
then we had ribs for dinner! but i only had a half slab…plus fries… bad call owl, bad call (at least no drinking!)
yesterday i tried to get back on track – ate healthy brekkie of 2 eggs mixed up with a bunch of frozen corn and 1/4 fat free cheddar cheese with two mini biscuits (2=100 cals). then had organic PB&J for lunch. then mad delicious version of rachel ray’s chicken gratin – chopped white meat chicken sauteed with onions, garlic, TONS of frozen peas, plus cayenne pepper and other seasoning, plus fresh flat-leaf parsley and some lime juice with a little cream and a lot of veg. stock to make a sauce. then baked it in a casserole in the oven and served over a minimal amount of egg noodles.It was very tasty – nice and spicy with sweet peas to even it out.
today i’m going to get my first fillings. i’m purdy scared.i just had the last two mini biscuits – one with an egg , the other with PB&J. apparently i won’t be able to eat for a long time afterwards! Wish me luck!
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What i’ve eaten today
March 28, 2008, 1:38 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: booze, diet, happy hour, nutrition plan, sushi, weight loss goals
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: booze, diet, happy hour, nutrition plan, sushi, weight loss goals
I thought I’d record this now because it’s Friday and it’s my last day at work and the calories will almost certainly get O2C tonight! (why can’t they make Diet Beer?)
Daily Nutrition (as of 2:30pm)
773 cals (1200-1550 Calories)
110 carbs (163-236 Carbs)
18 g fat (32-56g Fat)
24 g protein (60-127g Protein)
Workout
Probably burned about 160 cals – Walked about a mile or more getting to work, took at least a half mile or more walk around trying to find a place to have lunch with 7 co-workers (ended up at the Nordstrom’s Food Court on Wabash. It was appropriate really since that’s always been our default place and you can fit a large group and it’s fast and everyone’s happy with the choices available) Will definitely be doing more walking around tonight*
Have I mentioned how much i LOVE sushi? The Typhoon cafe at the Nordstorm’s food court is actually unbelievably good considering it’s a mall food court! It’s really fresh and tasty – today I had a spider roll (soft shell crab maki) and a tuna & avocado roll that I watched the chef make just for me!
The key to making sure you’re getting low-cal sushi is to avoid the mayonnaise! so NO “spicy” rolls because that’s almost always mayo mixed with chili sauce. that’s why i got the tuna and avocado instead of the spicy tuna i might usually get – still tasty and kind of creamy/fatty,but much healthier!
Tonight I will try to eat good snacks at happy hour (at the office! my last free drinks from the firm!) and have only the “diet” mixed drinks and not drink too much and not get a greasy snack later when i’m drunk and yeah…
Another McDonald’s post
Herb Peterson, an all-American hero, die peacefully at the age of 89 this past Tuesday.
We have Peterson to thank for creating the first-ever breakfast item for McDonalds – the Egg McMuffin. He wanted to create something similar to Eggs Benedict, apparently. And in 1972, the first breakfast item on a McDonald’s menu debuted at a restaurant Peterson co-owned with his son in Santa Barbara, CA.
One man changed the face of fast food and created a new dish – the breakfast sandwich.
Thanks, Herb.
Links to more coverage:
The AP story
The National Post
The Guardian (UK)
From So Good (sogoodblog.com) by Eick
McDonald’s Gone Wild: The McNuggitini
What can you do with 2 chicken McNuggets, a tub of McDonalds Brand Barbeque Sauce, a large Mcdonalds Chocolate Milkshake and a bottle of Vanilla Vodka? For Georgia, from The State That I Am In, the answer is: make a McNuggitini.
Where was the Top Chef Block Party?
It seems that people want to know!
So here are some maps – Richmond St. (incorrectly called Richmond Ave during the challenge) is an intermittent street so it is easy to isolate the few locations where the Block Party could have been.
After looking at the 5 possible locations – I then re-watched the episode looking carefully at the homes and noting that Dale said the vans were heading north. I am fairly certain the the cheftestants’ house is in Lincoln park or the gold coast – so that helped deduce the locale. Also Dale said something in the vans about how they were going towards K-town (Korea town) so that helped as well.
Here are my deductions:
Map #1 – WAY too far south! (and kinda ghetto/artsy/hipster)
Map #2 – Still too far south and a bit dodgy
Map #3 – funky little tiny block, right next to the expressway? I don’t think so
Map #4 – this is the area I immediately thought of when I saw the episode (also the neighborhood I mentioned that is near my parents’ house which I am pretty familiar with) This is my top choice – if i had to bet, I’d lay my money down on this one!
Map #5 – another VERY strong contender – it’s the furthest north, and relatively affluent (Devon Ave is the main strip for Indian food/stores so it seems like Dale might have mentioned that if they were headed towards it… As a Chicagoan I would have anyway…) My money’s still on Map #4
Just my intuition/reasoning/two cents!
UPDATE: Word around the interwebs supports my gut feeling that it is indeed Map #4 (which some people are saying is the Ravenswood neighborhood, but I wouldn’t call it that…)
what i ate yesterday
March 28, 2008, 9:17 am
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Boca burgers, creamed spinach, diet, Diet Coke, food, green giant, nutrition
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Boca burgers, creamed spinach, diet, Diet Coke, food, green giant, nutrition
yesterday was easy because Bear was still gone on a business trip.
so i had a granola bar before my dentists appointment (where i was horrified to find out that i have multiple cavities, have to get my first fillings on monday!)
then for lunch i had leftover chicken pad thai and salad with fat free ranch dressing, and later in the afternoon i had some trail mix i made at home (mostly craisins, raisins and dried cherries with just a small amount of peanuts and choc chips thrown in)
i was pretty hungry when it came time to have dinner, but fortunately i had stopped by the apt the other day and grabbed some of my staple diet foods. so i ignored the rest of the leftover thai food (my dad will eat basically anything no matter how old it is, so he’ll probably have it on sunday after they get back), but I was craving white bread!
So i had 2 boca burger patties on white bread with ketchup and mustard, plus a box of frozen green giant creamed spinach (its 70 cals a serving but the whole box is 2.5 servings so…it’s like 350 cals! but SO YUMMY, and it’s vegetables!)
then later on i had a handful of jelly bellys. Then i got in the car and drive to therapy, then i drove home, craving fast food the whole way. Just as i turned the car off after completing the difficult task of parking in the one-car urban garage, Bear called and asked if i was still willing to pick him up (as i’d offered before) so i sighed and said yes, of course dear, because i really did miss him and it wasn’t that late and i really like the book on CD i’m listening to in the car. but i was still craving fast food! in a weird way i was really just craving the experience of going through the drive-thru and eating in the car while driving! i used to do that a lot and i guess i really like it?! WEIRD! anyway after i picked up Bear I decided that I could treat myself to a Diet Coke. I know, I know, how is that a TREAT?
But i don’t drink caffeine, nor carbonated beverages, so a Diet Coke – especially a fountain drink (always seem extra-syrupy don’t they?) was enough of a different sweet treat for me. And it totally worked!
Except i think the caffeine actually affected me and i had a hard time falling asleep!
Still, a good day overall.
Daily Nutrition
1,383 cals (1200-1550 Calories)
184 carbs (163-236 Carbs)
47 g fat (32-56g Fat)
66 g protein (60-127g Protein)
Workout
Just the usual 2 miles of walking from home to el, from el to work, from work to el and from el to home – but it supposedly does burn about 260 calories!
Top Chef, Block Party
March 27, 2008, 12:11 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Jelly Bellys, Lincoln Park, Nopales, pasta salad, Richmond Ave, Rick Bayless, Top Chef, Topolobampo, wine
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Jelly Bellys, Lincoln Park, Nopales, pasta salad, Richmond Ave, Rick Bayless, Top Chef, Topolobampo, wine
Bimbo totally mocked me last night as I took notes during Episode 3, but I think they’re rather funny (keep in mind this is two chicks drinking wine and eating Jelly Bellys together)
So I present them to you here verbatim:
Episode 3
I <3 tacos!
Rick Bayless is a GEEK
You MUST try Nopalitos/Nopales
Manuel-Spanish much?
Lisa – not upscale but tasty (skirt steak IS tough!)
Andrew – NICE (he looks coked up!)
Spike – looks awesome…
Richard – impressive, great plating
Erik – poopy presentation (constantly)
Richard wins everything! Fakely modest
Bimbo giggles, write down that dish so we can go get it at that place (Topolobampo)
Where the HELL are they?!!
- just say the ‘hood! Driving us crazy!
Spike is growing on me
everyone loves sliders & mini corn dogs
Ryan is a bumbling fool
Velveeta is tricky business
those corn dogs look AWESOME
Spike’s hats just get worse and worse
We cannot get over wondering where this is!!! Richmond Ave paella! wide street
Taco salad – craveable
LOVE the s’mores lollipos
Because the Red Team is playin and having fun the Blue Team thinks they (the blue team) lost?
“Smart People” movie ad
I like how Rick Bayless implies that he knows how to use Velveeta but Nikki doesn’t
they won for a fuckin sugar/cinnamon coated friend wonton?! LAME
Eve is gonna get shafted for pasta salad
Fuck yeah Andrew! “This is my house!”
Waldorf salad looked nasty
True – someone should have decided that corn dogs were a bad idea b/c of the transport/steam issue
- BOO
Fucking Ryan can’t do anything right!!! and Zoe made BLAND pasta salad! I’ve been making pasta salad since I was 5! (it didn’t always taste great, but it was certainly NEVER BLAND!)And Erik got shafted b/c he didn’t think about what happens to corn dogs after 2 hrs in the warmer?I call BULLSHIT
(p.s. When they first went to the neighborhood for the block party, I said to Bimbo “that looks like my parents’ ‘hood! the one we’re in right now!” She was skeptical but willing to go along with it. Later we looked up Richmond Ave, which is actually Richmond St., and it is indeed very close to my parents’ house, near the park where i took tennis lessons and went ice-skating as a child. It’s right by the river. So that was REALLY COOL!
p.p.s I think the cheftestants live in Lincoln Park, does anybody agree/disagree/know something I don’t?)
what i ate yesterday
March 27, 2008, 11:53 am
Filed under: Uncategorized
Filed under: Uncategorized
(or: Thai food is SO good!)
Daily Nutrition
1,762 cals (1200-1550 Calories) 
257 carbs (163-236 Carbs)
52 g fat (32-56g Fat)
67 g protein (60-127g Protein)
Workout
NONE
Yesterday was a confusing day. Bear had left suddenly on Wednesday for a business trip thing, so I was all alone on Thursday morning. I don’t know exactly what happened and I’m ashamed to talk about it. I SHOULD have woken up early and either taken the eL straight there, or driven to work, parked in the lot by my office and then walked to my dentist appt with plenty of time to get there by 9am.
Instead I slept a bit late, dithered around in a fog for a bit, then tried to drive to my dentist appt. This dentist is on Michigan Ave where there is zero parking!!! Then I drove around like an idiot for quite some time sort of looking for parking, but not really. By the time I finally was over 15 minutes late to the appt. I drove to the parking garage near my office, just late enough to miss the “early bird/all day” special (which meant it cost me $25 to park there all day instead of like $16). Then I called the dentist and made up some lie about why I couldn’t make it.
Then I started calling all the closest dentists to my office who are in-network for my insurance trying to get an appointment for thursday or friday. I finally got one (which i found out this morning is actually the same dentist I saw the last time I went, but I had forgotten who it was)
(UNFORTUNATELY, I just found out that I have multiple CAVITIES!!! More than one!!! like 3 or 4!!! I don’t understand!!! I quit smoking three months ago and this is my reward?!!! CAVIfuckinTIES?!!!
I try to be optimistic, to think “well at least i went in and they did x-rays and caught them” and “at least i’ll be able to get fillings while i’m still covered by insurance”
but FUCK, you know?)
Anyway, then I felt I had to somehow justify bringing the car to work, so I decided to pack up my whole office and bring everything home. That made me feel better.
Until I realized how much SHIT i have accumulated in this office over the last 2 years!
Plus I was feeling kind of lonely, it’s hard when you’re so used to living with other people – roomies, bfs, fam – to realize that you have NO plans and you could do almost ANYTHING. It’s totally daunting.
So I got my friend Blondie from work to help me carry all my shit to the car in the parking garage and then come home with me to watch Top Chef (she doesn’t have Bravo so she needed to watch the previous 2 to get caught up).
Then I realized I had nothing in the house to serve to a normal person, I’ve been eating weird meals to avoid spending money/consuming calories but now I had a guest.
So I suggested we order Thai food. There’s a great place super-close to my parents’ house, we walked a few blocks to pick it up so I felt good about that. It would have been fine EXCEPT for the crab rangooon. and the FREE egg rolls.
If I had just had the small serving of chicken pad thai (they have a very light hand with the chicken so it’s mostly noodles and tofu and egg) and the even smaller serving of the beef and broccoli in peanut sauce over white rice (i picked out just broccoli and a few small pieces of beef on a 3/4 cup rice) – then everything would have been FINE.
But NO – I had the egg roll (170 cals, 25 carbs) and the crab rangoon (200+ cals, 23 carbs) ANd that’s what put me over the line! (Or I could have had both the egg roll and the crab rangoon but not the two handfuls of Jelly Belly beans while watching TV!!!)
GRRRR…
These are my decisions, I am in control, I will make good choices!
humor me…
March 26, 2008, 4:10 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: biggest loser, diet, fashion, lane bryant, obesity
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: biggest loser, diet, fashion, lane bryant, obesity
so i get a lot of weird feedback when it comes to dieting
my friends and family tend to reject statements i make like “i’m fat, i’m chubby, i’m unhealthy”
which I guess is nice, but I don’t find it very helpful! I AM OBESE, PEOPLE! recognize it! I’m not a little girl, I’m not going to grow out of it, I’m an obese adult woman who has a problem.
But I’m sure it’s hard to have the “right” response to someone’s weight loss efforts, especially when they are a little self-deprecating about it.
The other feedback I get is total disbelief – people seem unable to accept that I weight 235 lbs. I appreciate this response because I also don’t think I look like I weigh that much. Sometimes when I watch The Biggest Loser I cry because there are women on there who weigh LESS THAN I DO!!! I refuse to think of myself as THAT FAT, and yet the numbers are real.
Refried Bean says those women are really really short. Mo and others say that I “carry it well” and “well, you look a lot better than they do!”
I have wondered if/why that is true. Because honestly I don’t think I LOOK that much fatter than when I was 175 lbs – I can FEEL that I’m fatter, but I don’t SEE it in the mirror.
And the other thing I wonder is why do I look so much better with clothes on? I see lots of large women who look fat with their clothes on, even my lovely Refried Bean shows a tummy pooch and big bootie most of the time.
Is it my natural inclination to wear clothes that are loose? Am I a genius at finding flattering clothing? (It’s not like Lane Bryant is a secret…) Is it because I have maintained an hour-glass shape so clothes still fit my silhouette relatively well? Is it because I’m rather modest/hippie-ish so I just don’t tend to expose a lot of skin (except for layered tanks in summer)?
I’ve often wondered why I see other heavy women wearing tight clothing that reveals every lump and bump and poochy tummy. How are they comfortable with that? Are they trying to be proud of their bodies? Or have they just decided not to care?
I have a few tops that I still wear even though they are a bit clingy around the new lovehandles I’ve developed in the last few months, but I’m pretty uncomfortable in them until I get drunk or just manage to forget about it.
I guess I have my Mom to thank for this at least – I have finally learned not to put much emphasis on the size it says on the tag. She always told me it didn’t matter, that clothes are cut differently everywhere you go and even two shirts in the exact same style and color form the same store will fit you slightly differently. And she was right.
The important thing is to love yourself enough to dress your body in flattering clothing that you feel comfortable in, no matter what size you are! If you have to buy new clothes as you gain or lose weight, then so be it. You’re worth it.
i accidentally skipped breakfast this morning
March 26, 2008, 12:13 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Pride & Prejudice, wedding dress, wedding planning
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Pride & Prejudice, wedding dress, wedding planning
because I was looking up wedding dresses online! I have known for quite soem time that I’d like to get my wedding dress specially made just for me, so I was really just looking for inspiration.
I’ve always loved Pride & Prejudice (the A&E version, and the book) so I thought I’d start by looking up fashions from that era.
I found this picture and fell in love with it – love the empire waist, love the sleeves, love the sheer embroidered overlay on the skirt
Then I found the following little number and it seemed pretty close, but I want a fuller skirt.
Then I found the below and I gasped – could it be? had i found THE ONE?
It manages to be elegant, yet hippie-ish, fancy but natural, and it looks like it would even cover my back tattoo - it’s perfect! (except i don’t love the split in the middle of the overskirt, and the sleeves are a bit too bell-like for my tastes)
If it had smaller cap sleeves with a bit of pouf to them, and a bit more of a train in the back, possibly without the split in the middle of the skirt – then this would be THE ONE
Then I saw this little number and my heart skipped another beat – no split in the middle of the skirt, smaller sleeves, interesting neckline, GORGEOUS embroidery!
