My tapeworm tells me what to do

My mystery tapeworm is still with me. Seriously, I’ve eaten so much the past few days. Maybe it’s because I’ve come down with a cold? Doesn’t the old adage go, “Starve a fever, feed a cold?” If so, then I’m doing everything right!

Last night for dinner I had what seemed like a HUGE meal, but in reality wasn’t as humongoid as I’d thought. I baked a chicken breast (put Jack Daniel’s BBQ sauce on halfway through baking) and the remainder of my Alexia sweet potato fries (probably a serving and a half, if not two!), made a salad with mixed greens, feta and Drew’s Lemon Tahini Goddess dressing, and then had a carrot and a celery stalk dipped in white bean hummus. It seemed like a massive amount of food, but I was still hungry. I topped it off with a homemade chocolate chip cookie and cut myself off for the rest of the night. At least it was relatively healthy, though, right? Lots of veggies, anyways…

I’ve spent my last several workouts becoming more focused on weights and I think that might be a contributing factor concerning my constant starvation. Makes sense, right? My metabolism should be spiking, thus burning more calories, thus making me hungry? True or not, I like the sound of it. Anyways, I noticed this morning that I have little muscle lines on the OUTSIDE of my arms now! They’re pretty indiscernible, but if you look closely you can see them. I’m so excited! Also, people keep noticing I’ve lost weight! There is seriously no bigger motivator than having people notice all the hard work you’ve been doing, at least for me.

Tonight’s going to be a night off from the gym. I keep telling myself that I SHOULD go since normally I’d be at volleyball on a Thursday night (the Playoffs start tonight and we have yet another bye week since we’re #1 in our division!), but I’m so run down from this cold that I just don’t think I can do it. Instead, I think I’ll be heading to the East End Food Co-Op since I’ve been jonesing to go there for a few days now. I plan on getting some more unsalted cashew butter, maybe some bulk goodies, mayyyybe some more sweet potato fries, and maybe a special treat or two. I’m really considering making Red Lentil-Peanut Soup for dinner, but I can’t remember how many red and green lentils I have left at home from a previous (and delish) lentil soup recipe. Also, I only have about ½ cup of yogurt left after this morning’s breakfast. Perhaps I’ll make due with a more one-person-appropriate half recipe.

That’s pretty much the extent of my plans for the evening. Ideally, I’d like to get to Target to buy a new large envelope for my 2009 pay stubs and insurance info, etc., but I try to avoid going to Monroeville unless I’m going to the gym… and we’ve already discovered that’s probably not gonna happen tonight. So maybe I’ll just hang out at home and relax a bit.

Enjoy the warm-ish weather, Pittsburghers!

i'm (not) a barbie girl in a barbie world.

i gots no skillz, that's for sure.
 
last night after our volleyball game (we won, naturally), i ventured into downtown pittsburgh for salsa night at bossa nova at the invitation of natalie and leandra. while it was good to be sociable for the night instead of just heading home, i will say this: it's terribly difficult to go out when your friends are all zoolanders - ridiculously good-looking. although she doesn't try at all, natalie is easily one of the most gorgeous people i know. and what really sucks is that she's super nice and smart, and not stuck-up in the least, so it's impossible to hate her. leandra is also pretty, and she's colombian, so she has the accent on her side. even though i had just finished my game, i had changed my clothes, i didn't smell, and i didn't think i looked awful... the reason i had decided to go was that natalie told me that guys will come over and ask you to dance all night and that it's not a big deal if you don't know what you're doing - everyone's just there to have a good time. well, sure, that's likely true in natalie's case, but it's certainly not the case for average-looking people such as myself. guys were asking her to dance all night... and when we were hanging out and talking, guys would literally shove past me to ask her to dance. not one guy asked me to dance. i did dance one dance, quite awkwardly i might add, with a guy that natalie asked to dance with me. he was a nice guy and kind of cute, but he was obviously not into dancing with me. i left around midnight and just felt awful until i was asleep. i had expected the night to be fun and a bit of an ego boost... but instead it was depressing and awkward and i ended my night feeling like the ugly, fat, socially retarded girl that no one asked to prom. i mean, i may as well have pooped in the middle of the dance floor the way everyone (except leandra, natalie and a nice guy named brandon) was avoiding me. sigh. i probably won't be going back to salsa night. aside from the obvious reasons, i'm also disappointed because i really WANTED to learn how to dance - it looked like so much fun! blah.
 
on to better, more cheerful things! yesterday before the game, i went to right by nature for some groceries and dinner. i loaded up on avocados (2 for $1! sushi tonight!!), blackberries, blueberries, sweet potato chips, and a grape kombucha tea. for dinner, i raided their hot and cold bars and ended up with the bargain of the night - flank steak (i was in a rare red-meat mood), rosemary roasted potatoes, garlic noodles, some sort of chinese coleslaw or something, elbow mac with greens, and a lovely spinach salad with asiago, dried cranberries, whole roasted pecans and green goddess dressing for a whopping $3.57!! this is like the best deal ever! i was pleasantly full (though not TOO full) and it only cost $3.57... amazing. i tried the grape kombucha tea with lunch today and i have to say, i'm not really impressed. maybe that's just because lori said it smells like sewer... i dunno. but anyways, about 90 seconds ago i shook it a little and opened up the top because i'm mildly autistic and now there's niagara grape kombucha wonder drink all over my keyboard, desk, blotter, and floor. right where fermented tea belongs. holla!
 
i'm really not feeling the gym tonight, but i feel like i have to go since i haven't hit it up since monday. i'm really excited about making avocado sushi for dinner, though! tomorrow my mom and i are planning to meet up either at ross park mall or pittsburgh mills to do some pre-cruise shopping. by pre-cruise shopping, i mean that she might buy something, but i most likely will not since i have negative dollars in my bank account even after today's payday. it'll be nice to get out and do something besides go to the gym, though, and i'll likely get at least one meal out of her. :) and sunday...
pittsburgh's goin to the superbowl!
ok, i'll readily admit that i'm not the biggest football fan. but when i DO watch football, the steelers are obviously my team. i just have a hard time sitting still through hours of tv, especially when it gets so tense sometimes! so i usually tune in for the last 5 minutes or so... but i'm going to make an effort to check in periodically during the game to see how dem stillers are doing. :)
 
happy friday, everyone!

peaceful, easy feeling

every time i head down to my creepy basement it seems like it's christmas and my birthday all over again! on tonight's trip down the rickety stairs, the intention was to find my box of checks in one of the myriad of boxes since i wrote my last one to my boss today (you know how it goes - you pay your boss, you keep your job!)... while i was down there, i found not only the checks but all of this:


that's paris-themed coasters, brand spankin new burt's bees beeswax lip balm, loose change, prescription meds (the good kind), hair ties, sephora lip balm, burt's bees carrot day creme, extra sugarfree gum, and more hair ties.
this was just awesome because a) i'm constantly at a loss for hair ties; b) i'm still using the 2 snowmen coasters my grandma gave me for christmas; c) BURTS!; d) minty freshness is key; e) the pills are codeine, which is great because even though they're basically baby-strength prescription painkillers, i can actually take a whole codeine without getting sick whereas i can take a half a vicodin and still puke; and f) i'm broke so any change is good change. the jackpot bunny has obviously stopped at wilkins twp.

dinner tonight was awesome and almost vegetarian (for those of you who know my weakness for protein). i had half a can of healthy choice split pea with ham soup (hence almost vegetarian), a spinach salad with goat cheese and tj's tuscan italian balsamic vinaigrette, and a serving of the alexis sweet potato fries i bought at the co-op last week. mmmm, it was all delicious, and the sweet potato fries were fantabulous (and much better than the ones i've made on my own)! i wasn't quite full, so i had a tj's whole wheat tortilla with the tuscan white bean hummus from yesterday.

i cleaned up the kitchen, washed dishes, got lunch and dinner ready for tomorrow (3 meals at work tomorrow since it's a vb night!), did a little dancing while cleaning, and got a shower. i'm currently eating half the tonymisu from moio's... i like it (of course), but i think i've had better. there's some weird aftertaste to it... then again, maybe that's because it's been sitting in my fridge since saturday afternoon?

time to do a little reading before bed! g'night!

i'm so tired, my mind is on the blink...

marzetti’s light slaw dressing is ATOMIC in my book.
when i was younger i spent my summer days at my great-grandma nana’s house since both my parents worked. my mom would drop me off and pick me up every day on her way to/from work. nana wasn’t big on going out for lunch (though she LOVED jamocha shakes from arby’s!), so we almost always had lunch at her house. she’d make grilled cheeses, ham and cheeses, fish sticks, sometimes a totino’s thin crust personal pizza, and sometimes even a michelina’s mac & cheese. any time we had sandwiches, fish sticks or fries, though, we’d always have marzetti’s as our condiment. i credit her with my obscene obsession with marzetti’s, my strange love of fish sticks, and the first bloom of my fascination with the French language. she passed away when i was 18 (so i guess 8 years ago… wow), but these things still linger within me. it’s weird, but sometimes when i eat something that we used to have all the time (wheaties with bananas is another biggie!), i swear i can still smell her and her house. it’s kind of creepy and it makes me cry every time, if only a couple slow tears.
anyways, i’m currently noshing on a virginia baked ham, provolone and marzetti’s sammy on tj’s multigrain sprouted wheat bread. it’s pretty close to heaven. i honestly think i could eat marzetti’s for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. marzetti’s is up there with ketchup for me. i love em both, and putting marzetti’s and ketchup on fries and fish sticks is possibly the greatest ever! also on today’s lunch menu is another spinach salad with goat cheese & woodstock dressing and maybe half a grapefruit… the grapefruit might be saved for a snack, though, since i’m quickly slowing down (what an oxymoron).
 
last night i did everything i set out to do and more. i went tanning after work and then went immediately to the gym. la fitness was PACKED! i had planned on hanging out on the treadmill until yoga, but no empty treadmills were to be found so i had to opt for the one lone elliptical that was free. i spent 20 minutes on there (178 calories) and then hopped off to steal a treadmill. i warmed up some more with a 4:30 walk (3.7 mph, 6% incline) and then ran for about 34 minutes at my usual turtle speed (4.6 mph). towards yoga time, i cranked the incline up a bit (i usually run at 0% incline cuz i’m a wuss) to burn more calories since i was running out of time. my goal was to hit 500 calories before yoga started for a grand total of around 700 calories. unfortunately, i fell short by 10 measly calories so i bargained with myself that i’d hop back on for a few minutes after yoga to make up those 10. yoga was good and i REALLY felt like i got a workout – even my feet felt like they were working out! an hour later, i hopped back on the treadmill and decided to walk for another 35 minutes (3.8 mph, 7% incline). in total, my gym session blasted at least 956 calories. that’s a bit excessive, even for me.
 
when i got home it was 10:15 pm and i was DEAD. i was starving, but strangely i wasn’t very hungry. that doesn’t even make sense, but whatever. i heated up my tomato soup leftovers from the weekend and ran a hot bath. I ate my soup in the tub. And I’m ghetto fab, so I rinsed my bowl out in the tub when i was done. i popped a couple tylenol pm tablets and i was ready to rock. to quote mr. norton in fight club, “babies don’t sleep this well.” in fact, i slept so well that i missed both clock alarms AND my cell phone alarm and groggily looked over at the clock at 9:15 am and realized i needed to move my still-sore butt. i totally considered calling off since i feel like i was run over by a semi, but only wusses call off.
 
so now i’m sitting at my desk in pain… i’ve popped more tylenols and i’m pretty sure they’re not helping. i know, it’s my own fault. on the bright side, i’ve reached my edited goal of 15 gym visits this month! yay! green mango is in store for me at some point in the future. funny thing is, i always bribe myself with a reward but i never actually give myself the reward. and i think january may have been a bad month to use the green mango as a bribe since i’m going on a cruise in a mere 2 weeks and there will be plenty of indulgences for a full week. perhaps i will delay that particular reward until march… but i’ll still probably cash in my original reward, which was a drink at starbucks.
 
not of particular interest to anyone but me, but i signed myself up for the budget plan with my gas company, thus cutting my gas bill in half for this coming month. it took me 6 very full months to catch on to that one, but finally i got smart.
 
now that i figured out how to blog at work without logging onto the blogger website and without using my itsy bitsy blackberry keypad, i might update this more often… provided i have time at work, of course!
 
have a better tuesday than me, everyone!

everybody hurts... sometimes.

ouch.

good news, folks! i was able to secure a spot in yoga class this morning. it was awesome and i'm probably going to hit it up again tomorrow night after work and tanning. i was pretty stable for most of the class but when the instructor had us move from warrior 1 to warrior 3 i lost it on both sides. literally fell over... it was quite hilarious and i couldn't stop laughing. the girl beside me was also laughing. good thing i can laugh at myself! the class lasted an hour and i felt like i got a better workout than last time. but is 1 hour enough for beastly linds? heck no. i changed from yoga pants to running shorts and blasted through 33 minutes running and then 32 minutes walking at 3.7 mph/7% incline. when i felt i had sufficiently depleted myself of all energy for the rest of the day, i had burned upwards of 700 calories. it was a good workout to say the least. however...
i'm having some very unpleasant lasting effects from my workout. my stomach has been cramping up almost since i got home and no matter which position i'm in, it feels like i'm going into labor. (well, for all i know.) i mean, these are really intense stomach cramps! and they didn't start until after my workout - i was fine before and during. i did some web research and apparently i'm not the only person with this issue, but no one seems to know what it is. so i'm taking it easy for the rest of the night. obviously, since i can barely move. raise your hand if you're looking forward to getting up tomorrow! ...bueller? ...bueller?

breakfast this morning was an enticing combo of 2 slices ezekiel cinnamon raisin toast, half a grapefruit and coffee. kept me going through the workout, but then i was famished! when i got home i made myself the perfect lunch for a 14 degree snowy day - grilled cheese made with provolone, colby and some ham with select harvest tomato basil soup. yum-o. dinner tonight is going to be either leftover chicken marsala from wednesday night or my leftover spaghetti warehouse chicken parm & pasta. i think i should probably concentrate on scarfing down the chicken marsala before it goes bad... so chicken marsala with a spinach salad with woodstock dressing and crumbled goat cheese. i'm so excited i'm literally salivating. i love me some chevre! oh, and my evening snack is becoming a tradition - a glass of milk with freshly grated nutmeg and cinnamon. i've been really surprised lately at how this calms me down before bed. in fact, i didn't have any last night and i laid awake for hours before falling asleep. that's probably all in my head, but i'll take whatever help i can get.

gripe of the day is... why on earth do sports bra manufacturers make B/C cup the standard?! this is so incredibly frustrating! i was searching for a particular sports bra online and it just amazes me that all of the good-support, bigger-cup sports bras are priced a good $20 or more above "average"-cup sports bras. really?? the women with the bigger boobs need the sports bras a lot more than the mosquito-bite chicks, so it's unfair to me that a good-fitting sports bra should be so inaccessible to most people. wake up, manufacturers. we're not all size 2s and B cups!
anyways, a few months ago i got an AWESOME sports bra from tj maxx - the brand is moving comfort. it has hooks in the back and adjustable straps, just like a regular bra, and the fit is AMAZING. seriously, i've never had a sports bra fit so well before and it has fantabulous support, which i obviously need for running and volleyball. since discovering this bra's awesomeness, i've been to every tj maxx/marshall's/filene's in the greater pittsburgh area in search of another one and i've come up empty in every single store. i amazon-ed tonight and guess what? i found the bra but the reason why i can't find it in stores is that it's been discontinued. for the life of me, i can't figure out why a discontinued bra would cost so much ($27.50 was the cheapest for my size)... wouldn't retailers want to get rid of it and price it cheaply? whatever. i bought 2 from sierra trading post and now i have something to look forward to at work all week since they're being shipped there. :)

plans for tomorrow include work, tanning, some elliptical/treadmill OR cardio kickboxing, and yoga class. i'm totally considering returning to cardio kickboxing. i went once a few months ago, and though i finished the entire class, it was the most strenuous workout i'd had. i think i'm probably better equipped to deal with it now and i'd probably benefit from it... and yoga would be a great cool-down. but who knows... it'll probably just be elliptical/treadmill and then yoga. i probably won't be as hardcore as today, but i liked the fact that i really got a GOOD workout in, and a total body workout. i just wish my tummy would stop hurting so much! :(

all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if u seek amy

i've sadly become obsessed with the britney spears' song "if u seek amy." i seriously cannot stop listening to it. and the lyrics don't even make sense with the alternative meaning (hint: say "if u seek amy" fast), but the rhythm of it is just so gosh darn catchy. sure, some people may make fun of britney, but for some reason i've really rooted for her over the years. and i've always secretly liked her songs... hey, they're great to work out to!

i woke up nice and early today to relax and eat a nice breakfast (2 pieces ezekiel cinnamon raisin bread and a fruit bowl of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and pom seeds with mint yogi tea and agave nectar) before going to the 11 am yoga class at la fitness. i arrived with a few minutes to spare, but there were a lot of people there and very few spots were open. since i'm a complete yoga novice, i placed my mat between 2 people in the back row. now, there was plenty of room on either side of me for the two other people and the woman to my left didn't say a word. the older woman on my right, however, decided that she needed more leg room. as i was laying my mat down, she told me that there wasn't enough room and that i'd need to go to the front of the room. "there's plenty of room up there for you," she said and nodded her head towards the front. i looked at her and at the space between her mats (AMPLE space) and said something like "really? there's a lot of space..." and just to be difficult, she stretched her leg out and touched my mat with her big toe and looked up at me. i just raised my eyebrows, rolled up my mat and huffed "whatever, lady" before going out the door. i totally understand wanting to have enough room, but THERE WAS. i was soooo mad. i had been looking forward to yoga since monday night's class. i realize i could've just gone up front, but i don't like being front and center when i don't know what i'm doing. i think it was just a little bit uncalled for. so anyways, i ended up doing a smörgåsbord of gym exercises instead. i played basketball for about 20 minutes, then did 15 minutes on the recumbent bike, a little over 17 minutes on the elliptical, and about 37 minutes on the treadmill. i would've kept going on the treadmill and done weights, but one of the front desk attendants informed me i had a visitor...

mom and dad! they had apparently been calling my phone for the past hour and a half because they were coming to visit and when i didn't answer, they showed up at the most obvious place - the gym! i have to admit, when the girl said i had a visitor, i thought it was the cops. haha. i have no idea why i'd think that since i haven't done anything, but that was the first thought through my head. tee hee.

so i left the gym and then met my parents at my house. mom brought me 2 of the books she got for christmas (marley & me and twilight) and they brought me a yummy surprise - tonymisu from moio's!! we stayed in for a while and i showed them both how to play the wii... my mom tried wii fit, wii sports, and ddr. my dad tried a little bit of ddr but he was terrible at it. :) my mom seemed to like it, especially the wii fit, but my dad maintains that it's too expensive so they're not getting one. maybe i'll create a mii for her for the next time they come... we ended up in the strip for late lunch/early dinner. my dad really wanted to go to deluca's but we got there just a little too late. we walked around for a bit and then dad decided we were going to our old standby - the spaghetti warehouse. awesome, as always. but oddly enough, the hostess picked up a kid's menu for me... i'm 26. what am i supposed to do with a kid's menu? anyways, we each got trio dinners - apps, dinners (+salad/soup), and dessert. i got the chicken parm with pasta, a salad with balsamic and mozzarella sticks and ate about 1/3 of it. we all ended up with tiramisu, so my tonymisu will have to be tomorrow's treat. :)

after dinner we went to a new organic natural foods store that we passed on the way to the warehouse... right by nature. i'd swear the skies parted and pure sunlight was shining onto the place. it. was. awesome. ok, it was pretty much like whole foods/east end food co-op, but a bit cheaper. AND (important for in the strip) they give you a free parking token with a purchase. it was really nice inside... they had a really large selection of everything (but whole foods has a larger selection of produce), and their nut butter selection was nothing short of spectacular. sunbutter, almond butter, cashew butter, soynut butter, mystery butter, all kinds of wonderful butters. and they also have a lovely assortment of greek yogurt, including some i had never seen before. and their salad bar, both hot and cold... pretty good-looking stuff and $4/lb cheaper than whole foods!! PLUS they have a coffee bar that serves la prima coffee (YUMMMMM!). their coffee bean section wasn't super exciting but they have more teas than i have seen anywhere outside of nyc. seriously, their tea selection is incredible. my dad didn't seem too thrilled by the place (he calls it "organic crap" and won't eat anything that says "organic" on it... so weird), so i was a little rushed. i ended up with some hickory smoked turkey jerky and a strawberry "fruit leather." i tried the jerky and although it was quite tasty, i still prefer trader joe's teriyaki turkey jerky. tj's turkey jerky is also about $1.20 cheaper... but i loved this store and i think i'll make it a thursday night before or after volleyball treat since we play pretty close to the strip. for anyone that's interested, they're open 7 days a week 8am - 9pm.

i considered going back to the gym tonight after my parents left, but by the time i'd have gotten there, changed clothes, etc, it just wouldn't have been worth it. instead i might do some wii fit yoga (since i missed out on yoga this morning, haha)... or maybe i'll just hang out and relax. i'm gonna try to wake up even earlier tomorrow so that i can get to the gym with plenty of time to spare - yoga starts at 11 am again; this time with monday's instructor (yay!)... wish me luck in getting a spot! :)

baby it's cold outside

holy fudge, i almost froze trying to scrape my windshield when i left work. i love pittsburgh. really, i do. but could we maybe just shift the entire state of pennsylvania south about 30 degrees latitude? i don't know who's in charge of those decisions, but i'd really appreciate it.

i came home to the fantastic scent of pork and sauerkraut, ready-to-eat. slow cookers are the greatest. mine's a tiny one - i think it's supposed to be used for making fondue or something, but i use it as a crock pot. i'm half tempted to go buy a normal-sized one, but really, i have better things to spend my money on (maybe one of these?).

i'm supposed to go to a friend's for NYE to play his wii and hang out, but i'm just not sure right now. it's so stinkin cold! and i feel that if i go out tonight, i won't be up early enough to accomplish anything tomorrow. true, i have the day off since it's new year's day, but still, i was planning on going to the gym and getting some party supplies for saturday. i know that if i go to someone else's house tonight, i definitely won't be back home until at least 1.30 am, if i come back home at all (south hills is a mighty trek from my house in the snow with the cold and icy roads and drunken idiots). bleh. i need someone to tell me what to do. i need an adult.

exercise-wise, i tried doing a comcast on-demand yoga class and managed to get through 20 minutes of it before i felt dizzy. :) it didn't even seem that difficult, but i hadn't eaten in 6 hours before trying it... maybe next time i'll try having a snack beforehand. some day i'd like to try one of the yoga to the people podcasts that jenna talks about (eat, live, run). however, at the moment i am very much a novice and i don't think i'd be able to handle it. it's a worthy goal, though!

resolutions to come in a future post! my toes are going to freeze off so keeping them attached and warm is priority numero uno right now. :)