Back to the Gym

I got my behind back to the gym today.

Took my shoes too.

And I must admit that I am so happy!  "I regret that workout," said no one EVER.  See, still holds true. 

Whenever I would start to touch the machine during my workout, I would hear Jillian Michaels' voice in my head from Sunday's Biggest Loser yelling at me not to.  Thank you Jillian.

See you tomorrow locker room...now it's time for lunch!

A big old Caesar salad with my new favorite dressing from Bolthouse Farms.  It's a good day.

Thoughtful Th...err Tuesday

This was on my daily calendar yesterday.

So true.

This is one of my favorite illustrations from Mary Engelbreit.  I have a coffee mug with this picture on it.  Each year when it turns up on my daily calendar I post this quote as my status on Facebook (if you are a FB friend of mine, you might have noticed this).  Every time I post it it gets lots of comments and likes.  It is a good quote.

Here are the things I am not worrying about today.  :)

I emailed the contractor this morning to see if he had an update on when the counter tops would be ready for install.  The original date was sometime last week.  The current date is sometime this week.  I would love to have counter tops this week...that means we will have a sink installed and that means a much closer to normal kitchen life!  The ability to easily wash produce would be a welcome change.

The painters are in the house working on the bathrooms and touching up the scuff marks we made in the hall moving the refrigerator.  The bathrooms should have at least coat one finished today.  I can't wait to see the colors!

It is interesting to try and do your hair in a bathroom with no mirror.  I had the old school medicine cabinets removed so I could hang pretty mirrors.  Good thing I am all about pony tails right now.  :)  I keep thinking my goal this weekend will be to purchase and hang the mirrors in the bathrooms, but I will be relaxing in Gruene!  I am looking forward to the weekend away...even though I keep forgetting it is coming.  Here's hoping we come home to lots of progress and (crossing my fingers) counter tops!!!

Something I should be worrying about is the fact I am not working out and not eating all the great.  That is something I need to change and something that would give me strength today.  I shouldn't worry about it...I should just do it.  Goal for today...an evening walk around the neighborhood.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Busy Lazy Evenings

Good morning!

Yesterday evening seemed very relaxing, but I managed to get a lot done.  The husband, the workout buddy/neighbor and I went on a 30 minute walk after work.  That was a good start to the evening.  I felt a little like I was dragging and I am hoping that is no indication of how I will feel during week 1 day 2 of C25K tonight.  I am actually looking forward to it.  I am also looking forward to lunch time yoga today!!  YAY!

My laziness was probably most reflected in the dinner I prepared.  Hey...it wasn't take out, so I will chalk that up as a win for productivity.

The salad was spring mix, mushrooms, cucumber, reduced fat feta and boiled egg white for protein.  I added tomatoes to the husband's salad because I am nice and he likes them.  I do not like raw tomatoes so much.  The star of the salad was a lemon vinaigrette dressing, which is super easy to make.

• juice of one lemon
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tsp cumin seed
• salt and cracked pepper to taste

Whisk all the above ingredients together and you have dressing for two large salads.  It is easy and really tasty.  The dressing adds one point + to the salad as does the reduced fat feta.  So my salad was a whopping 2 points +.

In addition to salad I also made us some roasted asparagus.  If you have not roasted asparagus, you really should.  Spread it in one layer on a cookie sheet, spray it with olive oil from your misto or use your olive oil cooking spray, sprinkle with garlic salt and put in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.  Delicious.  I record the asparagus at one point + because of the olive oil, I doubt there is a whole teaspoon on it, but better safe than sorry.

I also managed to get some laundry done, which was nice.  Trixie was a big help.

Okay, actually she was having a lazier evening than me, but she sure looked cute doing it.

Have you heard of The Naked Face Project?  Caitlin Boyle who writes Healthy Tipping Point, a blog I love, and another woman, the founder of Girls on the Run are doing no makeup, no shaving, no grooming for 60 days.  They are pretty much, brushing teeth, bathing/washing faces and that's it.  Check out the project and let me know what you think.  Tomorrow I will be blogging my thoughts about it.

Interesting Magazine Ad

I got to thinking about it more last night after I got in bed with my magazine after a nice shower that included leg shaving and using an exfoliating scrub on my face and was closely followed by my evening regime of eye and face cream.  These ladies have given up all these things (except the shower) for 60 days.  Check out the site and the reason why they are doing it and let me know what you think tomorrow.  I'll detail my thoughts then.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Weekend Recap

That's right no weigh in today.  If you guessed that after Friday's post, you are getting to know me so well!  The good news is that increase activity week is off to a great start...workout buddy and neighbor, Rebecca and I got in a walk this morning and I have plans to go to yoga at lunch.

Over the weekend we did some cleaning out at my mom's house.  You have heard me mention that the husband and I are getting ready to move into a house, well that house is my mom's and in order to get it ready for new people to move in, it's important to get the old things cleaned out.  This house is the house I grew up in and my mom lived in it a little while when she was a child.  It has been in the family for a long time.

One of the highlights of the clean out was that we got to look through a lot of old pictures and newspaper clippings.  Here are some of my favorites.

Mom

Mom and Dad

Gramps - mom's dad

Grandpa D - dad's dad

Dad as a kid - on left

Mom as bridesmaid

Program from my elementary school.

Yes, I was in the mime troupe because I was super cool.  I was laughing at the super high tech  computer on the program...this was only like a few years ago.

In addition to pictures we found all kinds of crazy random things.

ET windup toy and Avon Betsy Ross perfume bottle...everyone has that right?

We worked very hard on Saturday.  We ended up with a ton of stuff to donate to the Salvation Army...my mom is making a drop off trip over there today.  We still have a lot more to do, but we are beginning to make a dent in it.

Sunday we spent relaxing.

Doesn't Trixie look so excited about this snuggle time?

And this morning the husband got awesome news!  He got a promotion!  I am so proud of him!  Congrats angel!!!!

TGIF

Yes, that is my whole title today.  I am too lazy to think of anything more creative.  I am super happy it is Friday and I am looking forward to the evening already.  I am ready to relax.

This week has been weird...weather wise, allergy/headache wise and my energy level has been very low.  I know this will not be a week I have lost any weight.  I keep stressing a little about how slow this is going for me right now.  I know I need to keep on trucking, take a deep breath and just be happy that there is positive progress no matter how small.

Daisies make things better. (source)

So, I will concentrate on the positive today.  I ate a healthy breakfast, I packed a healthy lunch and I am as ready as I am am going to be to take on this day.

Next week my goal will be to move more.  Maybe my body needed the rest I have given it this week and that's why it was telling me to slow down on my activity and sleep more.  I hope I have created the balance it needed.  My mind is ready to go and get some awesome workouts in next week.

(source)

I missed my yoga class this week.  I am already looking forward to yoga next week.  I wish my yoga classroom looked like this picture....that would be cool.  I am also planning on getting to the gym in the morning with my workout buddy and neighbor, Rebecca.  I have missed out this week.  Sorry Rebecca!

(source)

My plans for the weekend are to relax, get some work done at the house we will be moving into at the end of April, take a few walks and plan some great healthy meals for next week.  I hope you have a wonderful relaxing weekend!  What are your plans?

Wonderful Wednesday

It is a sunny and cool morning here in Houston and my mood has drastically improved from yesterday.  I am very pleased with myself.  Rebecca and I knocked out a 2 mile walk this morning that we thought was going slower than usual, but we ended up being right on target with our usual pace.  Great start to the morning.

I finally remembered to gather one of my stocking stuffers and bring it to work with me this morning.  Check it out!

Bright Colored Pens!

Santa knows me so well!  The interesting thing about this package of bright colored pens is that it includes a brown pen.  I have never seen a brown pen before.  Pretty cool if you ask me.  Yes, I am that girl.

The pen color today will be turquoise, not brown, because I am trying to be unpredictable.  :)  Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!!

Hmmm, Tuesday

I am having that kind of morning.  The weather yesterday was very blah, but the bonus was that I got to leave work early.  They were letting people head home because of the weather and flooding.  I had a great time hanging out with my mom and Sam for a few hours and then I headed home.  I had a relaxing afternoon, made some dinner for me and the hubs.  No pictures since I wasn't very thrilled with it.  I did my baked tilapia from this post, but did it with mahi mahi and I was not impressed.  It's not a very pretty fish either...no offense.

(source)

I didn't expect the taste to be all that different between the tilapia and the mahi mahi, but the mahi mahi was definitely a much stronger tasting fish and did not do well in this dish.  Oh, well lesson learned...I will stick with the tilapia for that particular recipe.

I went to sleep watching the LSU/Alabama game, so at a reasonable time, but I was wide awake at 2:30 AM.  I am sure this is the cause of my blah mood today.  I was awake for a couple of hours and ended up sleeping in past my walk with Rebecca this morning.  I almost feel like if I had sacrificed the sleep and gotten up and walked I might feel better.  What do you think?  Is movement or sleep more important?

I leave you with a picture of Sammy since I can't have that fish be the only picture I put in this post.  :)

Weekend Recap and Weigh In

It is a gloomy day here in Houston!  Ugh!  That didn't stop workout buddy and neighbor, Rebecca and me from getting our walk in this morning.  I was proud of us...we didn't have any rain while we were out there, but we did have some thunder and lightening.  We got our half hour in and almost two miles done.  I didn't get on the scale this morning because by the time I had remembered it was weigh in morning I had already had way too much water for the weigh in to be accurate, so I skipped it.  I am glad I make the rules for this.  :)

This weekend was boring in the blog sense, but busy in the chores and errands department.  We did have lunch at Lankford Grocery which is delicious and Guy Fieri approved. 

If you are in the Houston area, I recommend it.  The burgers are awesome, cheap and HUGE you could definitely split one with someone and be plenty full.  They don't take credit cards though, so be sure to have some cash on you if you stop in.

We took down our Christmas tree...exciting I know.  It looked like a dead Christmas tree exploded in our house.

And then made a run for it.

Oh, wait...that's pretty much what happened.  After we cleaned everything up (thank you husband for doing most of the work on that!) we got to put our other new end table in place.

Love it!

Sammy did a lot of pretending she was the cat by lying on the back of the sofa in the den.

She's so pretty.

This morning's tea is being enjoyed from my Valentine's Day mug.

We watched a Bones episode last night (love that show) that took place on Valentine's Day.  The characters were having the usual disagreements about Valentine's Day.  I am and have always been okay with the day...single or in a relationship...I like hearts and candy.  I do tell my husband not to get me flowers on that day since I think they are over priced.  So tell me, how do you feel about Valentine's Day?

Accomplishments

Last night I made a small accomplishment.  I jogged for 10 minutes straight.  I know it is harder to run outside, this was inside running (around my house to be exact), but I still felt fantastic about it.  It felt great to jog.

We did our grocery shopping last night and had dinner with my mom.  I knew we were having Chinese so I planned my breakfast and lunch knowing my dinner would be higher in calories.  I got the chicken with vegetables, it was delicious and I stayed on track.  Another accomplishment.

So I mentioned in recent posts that I worked last Saturday.  Well, sometimes there is down time while we work on the upgrades since the computers are working.  I took a break and sketched Sammy.  I am silly, but I enjoyed it.  I sketched this picture.

And it turned out a lot like a child drew it.

But for me it was pretty good.  I will keep my day job.

In other picture news...how sweet is this?  My brother-in-law, John, with my nieces for the father daughter dance.

Love.

And my sister-in-law is on top of things this year.  How cute are Jett and Leslie with Santa?

Heart.

Today the pen color will be red.

What accomplishments are you celebrating these days?

Jury Duty

Good morning!!  Rebecca and I walked this morning and it felt SO good to move.  Back on track!  Yay!!  I am planning a trip to the gym at lunch with Roberta.  I am wondering if I should change my name to something 3 syllables that starts with an R.  Hmmm...something to think about.

So yesterday was jury duty.  Which I have no pictures of since it is frowned upon to take photos in the court room or jury selection room.  But I do have this picture of Sammy doing what I wished I had been doing during all the waiting.

Cute, right?

Anyway, if you have been to jury duty you know that there is a whole lot of waiting.  I arrived around 7:45 and went through the metal detectors without my shoes and on and then on to juror room 3 to wait...and wait...and wait.  I had my book and I was reading, but I really wanted to doze off.

Finally around 11:00 am I was selected along with 64 others to sit on a panel for a criminal court case.  We were lined up in the hall by the bailiff and assigned juror numbers that were on laminated cards (I was proudly juror 58).  We were then led through the underground tunnels downtown to the criminal court building where we were taken via freight elevator to the 19th floor.  I thought this was a little weird, but it was an interesting experience, so I did not complain.  Once on the 19th floor we were lined up along the hallway outside one of the courtrooms.  There were 4 on that floor I believe.  Then we were told by our bailiff that we could take a break.  There was a lot of great opportunity for people watching, interesting folks coming and going from the criminal courts, but there were not a lot of places to sit, so that was a bummer.  We were told we could not leave that floor.

After our break we were lined up and brought into the courtroom where the judge welcomed us and told us he was sorry for the delay, that it was his fault and if we wanted to be mad at someone or blame someone it was him.  I like someone who can take responsibility, I was sure I was going to like this judge.  So began the afternoon of him explaining the burden of the state to prove guilt, descriptions and examples of reasonable doubt (as one example goes thinking an alien came down, took on the likeness of the defendant and committed the crime is not a reasonable doubt...I told you I liked the judge) and the defendant being innocent until proved guilty.

The man coming to trial had been indicted of sexually abusing a child and as it turns out when the aunt in me kicks in, reasonable doubt becomes a grey area for me.  Don't judge me yet...I believe in everyone getting a fair trial, the accused was in the court room yesterday and I didn't think he looked scary or like someone who could commit such a crime.  I do know, however, that as the judge spoke and as the brave souls asked questions (it is intimidating to speak in a court room) I began to realize I didn't think I was a good choice for this jury.  The judge read the indictment which consisted of the crime and location, a specific county in Texas.  Then he asked us this question, "Do you believe that if the state cannot prove every aspect of this indictment beyond a reasonable doubt, that YOU can follow the law and return a verdict of not guilty?"

Let's see...the state proves that the correct person is here on trial.  Okay.  The state proves a sexual crime against a child has been committed.  Okay.  The state does not prove it happened in a certain Texas county.  You lost me.  If there was a crime and this was the person that committed the crime and there are no doubts about these things, you want me to call him not guilty?

I asked the judge if the state failed to prove the crime happened in this county if he could be tried again in another county for the same crime.  He told me that jeopardy did not exist and he could be tried in another location IF there was an investigation AND indictment there.  Now you really lost me.  I had to tell the judge (and it is intimidating to tell a judge this) that NO, I would not be able to follow the law and return a verdict of not guilty if the state proved to me beyond a reasonable doubt that the correct person was being prosecuted and this crime had been committed.  I didn't care if it happened in a Texas county, a Florida county or on the moon.  Especially if this could be this child's only chance to see justice served.  (This crime had also occurred in 2001, so said child is probably an adult or pushing adulthood now.)

It was scary to tell a judge that you wouldn't follow the law.  I was honest, which is what I had sworn to be and that part felt good.  There were a lot of completely silent jurors...I think they might have been scared too.  I was not selected for the jury.

This squirrel was there to greet me when I arrived at my mom's house to pick up Sammy after jury duty.

Hello Mr. Squirrel

Today I will be back in my happy yellow office gladly not thinking about fair trials, presumed innocence and the burden of proof.  The pen color of the day will be yellow.

Have you ever had to sit on a jury?  Could you remain neutral?

Terrific Tuesday

The weather is beautiful here in Houston this morning.  Rebecca and I knocked out 1.89 miles this morning and it was awesome.  The time flew by, I think because of the weather and the great company.

Last night's dinner was simple.  I baked chicken that I had marinated in Allegro hickory marinade...I like the original marinade better, but this one was also very good.  (More about Allegro in this post.)  I made a side of pasta cooked in chicken broth and a salad with awesome balsamic dressing.

The new thing I tried last night was adding water chestnuts to the salad.  It was good...didn't blow me away, but it added a nice texture.  This dinner came in at 9 weight watchers points, 4 points for 4 ounces of chicken, 3 points for 2/3 cup cooked pasta, one point for the dressing and one point for the reduced fat feta in the salad.  Very filling and quite tasty.

I realized after posting yesterday's post that the pen color really should have been pink.  I will correct that by making it the pen color today.

Love my daisy mouse pad.  :)

Have a fabulous day!!

A Little Bit of Everything

Yesterday at lunch I ran into Roberta in the gym.  I love it when that happens...working out with friends is fun.  In case you missed yesterday's post, Roberta was my workout buddy Wednesday evening.  She made me run, she is mean.  Actually the running was my idea and she humored me.

Hi Bird.

View From the Elliptical

After work I stopped at my mom's house to pick up a record for the husband.  Yes, an actual record.  My stomach was already growling to I grabbed a handful of her animal crackers for a snack on the way home.  I still call them animal crackers even though she buys the store brand and they are shaped like numbers and letters.  Anyway, I took a little bag of them to snack on.  The last two in the bag made me laugh.

Ha!  Interesting snack!

Well, I thought it was funny.

The husband, Rebecca and I went for a walk when we all got home, so dinner was simple.  Chicken seasoned in Allegro (details about Allegro in this post) and salad.

Mmmmm.

After my 9 point dinner I still had 6 points left for the day, so a little later I had some Terra chips for a snack.

Pretty.

Have you ever had Terra Chips?  They are good...different root veggies made into chips.  They have sweet potato, taro, yuca, parsnip and batata.  No, I don't know what all of those are, but I do know they are good and they are 4 points for a serving...so I had a serving and a half.  :)

In Trixie's effort to make the blog she tried to up her silliness.

Silly Kitten

Sammy countered with...

Silly Puppy

And I got a pottery barn catalog in the mail yesterday.  It sealed the deal...the fall decorations are coming out this weekend.

Love It

The pen color will still be orange today in honor of this decision.  Enjoy your Friday!!

What are your plans this weekend?