February Goals

I just want to say, I almost stopped at McDonald's after work, but didn't.  Those golden arches were calling my name.  They wanted me to get some golden, crispy fries.  I fought the urge saw all of the cars in line and just drove by.  I'm really glad I skipped it.  A large fry has 500 calories and 25 grams of fat!  They are not that good to be worth all of that!  I make better fries!  So, I went home and had a salad and some Lentils and Rice on a tortilla.

Evil!

I forgot it was February!  In working towards making my goal weight, I lost 4.6 lbs in January!  My goal is to lose at least 4 lbs a month, so that will be my first goal.

Exactly

1) Lose at least 4 lbs.  I will just keep tracking using Weight Watchers Points Plus and trying to eat as healthy as I can...most of the time.

Never know who you'll see!

2) Work out at least 3 times a week.  Despite trying to follow a running plan, I am still struggling with running on a treadmill.  I need to just DO IT and stop whining about it (but that won't happen)!!

Oh, Pinterest

3) Try one new recipe a week.  Already on top of that, with the Lazy Lasagna recipe I concocted.  It turned out pretty good and now I have healthy food for almost a week!

Eggy will get my coffee now.

4) Continue with no caffeine.  I have not had coffee for three days.  This is the longest I've gone without any caffeine in years!  I'm still tired, but it's been easier for me to fall asleep at night.  I don't want to use non-caffeinated soda as a crutch either.  I just don't want any of it.

I think those are doable goals for a short 28 day month!

What are your monthly goals?

Ode to My Cat and Lazy Lasagna Recipe

In his usual napping spot.

When I was younger, my grandparents had a Himalayan named Leon.  He was so mean and would chase me around the house when my Grandma would go downstairs or leave the room!  I later found out he would do the same thing to my cousin.  But, my Grandma loved him.  Leon was always on her lap, getting his pet on, or getting brushed.  I never really liked cats for this reason.

Fast forward to years later, Kevin insisted that we get a Siamese cat.  It had to be a Siamese.  I was adamantly opposed to it after my experience with my Grandma's cat.  They were similar breeds and I figured similar temperaments.  He asked if he found one could we get him?  I finally gave in and said yes, thinking nothing would come of it.

Eggy use to jump in the pantry and sit in boxes when he was smaller.

Well, weeks later he called me at work and said he found one in Milwaukee and wanted to make sure it was okay still.  I begrudgingly said fine.

Can't wait to open his Christmas present.

When I got home to see him, he was the cutest, most adorable little kitten!  He had giant ears and a little cry that sounded like a baby.  To this day he talks to us, which is a common siamese trait and I love it!

Needless to say, he grew on me.  Every night, he would fall asleep on my lap and I would carry him to bed with us.  Every day I looked forward to seeing him when I got home.  He was really friendly as a kitten, but as he grew older he became...not as friendly to strangers.  I think he is just guarding his territory and I now understand why my Grandma's cat was so unfriendly to us.

Photo-bombing my pic of all of the sauce I bought for 46 cents each.

I am quite obsessed with my cat.  There are about 100 pictures a day that I take of him that I don't post to Facebook and about 100 times I restrain myself from talking about him.  People always ask, "How's Eggroll?"  I let my fiancé's sister borrow an old phone and she messaged me, "I can't believe how many pictures of Eggroll are on here."  I texted her back, "I can!"

Sleeping in his new favorite blanket my mom got him me.

As with any pet, they make our lives better.  Both Kevin and I know that we need Eggy just as much or more than he needs us!

Lazy Lasagna

I saw a recipe on Pinterest (where else!) of a fancy looking wrapped lasagna.  I don't have time for that, so I just modified it to this.

16 oz Farfalle noodles or your favorite
16 oz your favorite jar spaghetti sauce
8 oz sliced mushrooms
4 cups kale, torn into pieces
22 oz fat free cottage cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Cook the noodles per boxed instructions.  While that is cooking, slice the mushrooms, and kale.  Put into large bowl.  Add the cottage cheese, spaghetti sauce, italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.  Mix until it is all covered in sauce.  When the noodles are finished, drain, and add to the bowl.  Mix everything together and put in 9x13 pan.  Cover evenly with mozzarella cheese.  Bake for 30 minutes, or until cheese starts to turn a golden brown on the edges.

Favorite Things Right Now

Rice Cooker

This is mine, except white.

Rice is one of my favorite staples to always have ready to go.  I can add anything to it in the rice cooker and it cooks it up to perfection every time!

Water

Water

I haven't had any soda in a few weeks now.  It wasn't a  conscious choice, really.  I just never bought anymore.  I figured I drank enough coffee anyways.  Now, I'm going to be staying away from coffee as well.  Water is my go to beverage of choice.  If I get too bored with it, I like to add one of those lemonade Crystal Light flavorings...except I use the Market Pantry brand from Target because it's cheaper and just as delicious.

Knitting

Poor Kitty

I know, I'm weird.  I have always crocheted and loved how fast I could finish something.  After starting my knitting project, I have learned to be patient with making things.  It's still very hard to take weeks to finish a project, but it is worth it in the end.

Gym Membership

So Cute!

I had really started to slack on my running because of the weather and overall general laziness.  Now there is no excuse to miss a workout.  I really like the cardio cinema.  I can watch a movie and workout at the same time.  How awesome is that?  I can also get in my speed work on the treadmill and get to an occasional yoga class.

On another note...

Today, I tried out a new recipe.  I was browsing through my millions of Pinterest recipes that I've never used and came across a quick and easy one called Mexican Lentils and Rice.  I read the blog Runs for Cookies and she has a separate blog for her recipes that I like to check out all of the time.  There are a ton of great ones to try!

I just threw everything in a rice cooker and it came out perfectly delicious!

I ate it on a tortilla, but I actually prefer it plain.

The rest of my day was spent cleaning the house.  It was in dire need of it!

Where do you get your recipes from?  

Case of the Mondays and Weekly Goals

Goals

My first goal this week will be to stick to my running plan...for real this time. Although, I am fine that I substitute the elliptical one or two times, as long as it isn't instead of a speed/tempo workout or long run.

The 3 is for week 3 over on the left.

My other goal will be to just keep tracking everything.  It is easy for me to get bored and lazy and just not write things down because I think I have been doing okay.  I have serious food amnesia and rarely eat well if I'm not keeping a record of it somehow.


I definitely had a case of the Mondays today!

Case of the Mondays

Last night was rough!  I was laying in bed when I started getting a lot of pressure in my stomach.  I knew what was happening!  About 7 years ago, I started getting acid reflux/heart burn (I really don't know the difference) really bad.  At the time, I had put on quite a bit of weight and almost all of my meals (all five to six of them) consisted of fast food and soda.  I started getting the worst pain right under my rib cage to the point I couldn't sleep or eat.  I finally went to the doctor.  She said that I needed to stop with the caffeine and unhealthy foods and prescribed an acid reflux pill that I would have to take every day.  I was 24 or 25!  I was too young to be on this stuff for the rest of my life!  So, that's when I quit caffeine for two years and lost my 50 lbs the first time I did Weight Watchers.

I stopped taking those pills after the first 30 ran out to see if I would be okay without them, and I was.  I had a few flare ups over the years, but always after I had eaten like garbage.  I guess my body doesn't appreciate all of the junk food the way I do.

So, last night when I started getting the flare up again, I was hoping it would pass quickly.  No chance!  I was up until 4 am.  The pain was just an insane pressure of what feels like built up gas and an acidy burning.  I threw up a few times, but just felt like I needed to seriously fart or poop with no relief!

I slept with a heating pad on my stomach.  It makes me feel better somehow.  And slept sitting up on the couch for a couple of hours before work.

I still felt yucky for most of the day and have soreness under my ribcage  and all I've eaten today was some pretzels, a bun, an orange, and of course water.  I just really hope I don't have to go through this again tonight.

On the funny side, Kevin asked me if I had made my goal yet.  I was confused in my sleepy state, and asked what are you talking about?  He said, you know, one stomach flu from your goal weight.  Haha!  That's what I always say when I'm sick.

Goal Weight

What are your goals this week?

Losing It

I have successfully tracked another week and am down another 1.6 lbs! I set a goal to lose at least 4 lbs a month for the next year to get to my goal weight.  This is the first time I have ever met a goal that involved weight loss...ever.  It's only 4.6 lbs, but that is a big accomplishment for myself!

This week was definitely easier then last week, in the respect that I'm getting use to how many points things are, measuring servings again, and picking fruit instead of other snacks that are not zero points.  I'm also trying to get myself out of eating out of boredom and paying attention to whether or not I'm actually hungry (People really do that.  Weird, I know).

We had super dreary weather today.  I could not wake up today.  I felt very sleepy and sluggish all day.  Eggy needed his coffee, of course.

I knitted a bit and then went shopping with Melissa and lil Joe.  She is already back in her pre-pregnancy clothes after having the twins last week!

Melissa said she was taking a shower before leaving, so I promised her I would put on a bra and brush my teeth.  You're welcome and you're welcome.

On a random note, I was reading some past blogs and found comments that I hadn't seen.  I can't figure out how to get those notifications.  Shouldn't I just get notified by default?  This falls under user error, I'm sure.

Virtual 5K

Today, I participated in a Virtual 5K to celebrate the birthday of blogger, Runs for Cookies.  It was a great reason to get me into the gym.  No, a training plan is never a great reason.

Since I had missed a scheduled 3 mile run yesterday, I decided to run my 5K on the treadmill and then do 3 miles on the elliptical.

My last couple of times on the treadmill have sucked.  I forgot how hard, mentally, it is to run on that thing.  I use to only run on treadmills when I started!  Now, it's torture.

So, I had to go in with a game plan.  I decided I would run the 5K on the 'random' option in order to feel more like I was outside.  That way, I could increase and decrease the speed as the incline increased and decreased.

I walked for five minutes to warm up and then started my program.  I plugged in 36 minutes for a finish time, since that was my goal time for the race that I had made for myself.

It was a rough run, but better then I have felt lately.  I ran between a 5mph (12:00 min/mile) and a 5.8 (10:34 min/mile).  My first mile was 11:19.  While that is usually a little faster then I do outside, it was way too fast for the treadmill.  I took a walk break after I hit mile 1.  Then, another walk break at 1.5miles.  Then, another one around 2 ish miles.  Mile 2 was a little over 12 min/mile average pace.  I didn't even pay attention to mile 3, but I was getting a little worried that I wouldn't finish in time.  The last two minutes I kicked up the pace and came in right under my goal at 35 min 45 sec!

I was dripping sweat everywhere!  I felt good though.  A bit tired, but strong.  I did another 41 minutes in the cardio cinema watching The Ghost Writer.  I really had no idea what was going on, but I like the idea of watching a movie while I work out so there are no commercials.  I finished with 2.76 miles on the elliptical.

After that, I rushed home to get ready for Craft Night.  It was only going to be Laura and I, but that was okay since I don't see her enough!
I made my version of a stuffed pepper casserole.  It turned out pretty good.  Laura made a pear crisp that was really YUM!

Stuffed Pepper Casserole

3c. cooked rice
2c. spaghetti sauce
1 whole, green pepper, diced
3 mushrooms, diced
1.25c. mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375.  Mix all ingredients except the cheese together in a bowl.  Spread into a 9x13 pan.  Sprinkle the cheese over the top.  Bake about 40 minutes, or until cheese starts to turn a golden brown around the edges.  Makes 8 servings.

Since I have been doing Weight Watchers, this dish was 5 PP per serving!

I work a short shift tomorrow and then a lot of running around.

Sunday is weigh in day and my 5 mile long run.

What are your weekend running plans?

Track-a-Lackin'

I have successfully tracked for a whole week!  It was hard, especially when I ate like garbage, but it was definitely eye opening.  It has helped me adjust my eating throughout the day to stay on track.

After making it through my first week, I was rewarded with a 3 lb weight loss!  I was really excited about that.  I feel like it always takes me forever to drop the pounds.  That was definitely the motivation I needed to keep going.

Unlike last week, I still have some Points Plus left after 3 days of the new week.  Last week I was out of my weekly points after 1 or 2 days - and way over.  I am finally getting the hang of this again.

My new favorite thing to eat is my version of a Q'doba burrito.

It's made of one giant tortilla, lettuce, rice, black beans, green peppers, mushrooms, salsa, and of course Taco Bell mild sauce.  When I wrapped it up I didn't think I would be able to finish it all, but I gobbled that bad boy down!  It was really good.  I only ate half of what I made, so I have enough to make another burrito wrap tomorrow for lunch.  

I love pretty much anything that involves a tortilla and/or rice.

What is your favorite food right now?