Carli's Latest Blog Entry
I’m still working it at work. After we ate steamed veggies with chicken and side salad, we headed outside and power walked for half an hour. I need to calculate the distance, but I’m sure it was over a mile. I’m so loving these results. I’ve lost about 6.5 pounds since I got back started on the right path a couple weeks ago. I had big plans to get back into the boot camp groove tonight, but my little sister called when she got home from school. She told me that she was “taking me to dinner in forest park, that she was driving and that when we got to the restaurant someone would buy our meal.” I’m so Type-A, and this loose plan of letting a brand new 16 year old driver “take” me to dinner and have it “paid for” by some mystery person was a not really specific enough for me. She told me to trust her. I had to drive over my parent’s house because she only has a learners driver’s permit. But check this, she already has a CAR! I had to trudge for miles through the snow on Mizzou’s gigantic campus and maintain a 3.5 GPA for a whole year before I got my 1986 Chevy Celebrity, and this chick is a Junior in High School with a car. Okay, so I’m a little jealous, but she does keep a 3.8 GPA, so I ain’t mad at her. LOL!
Anyway, I held my breath as she drove dangerously close to the cars parked on the street and claimed that the kid on the bike across the street was “too close and in her way.” I told her I had better not be risking my life and skipping boot camp, just so she give me some bootleg turkey sandwich in the park parking lot where everyone goes to practice driving. She assured me it was a real sit down restaurant. I was still nervous, because I just don’t do surprises well….
She actually drove pretty good, until she simultaneously stopped, bowed her head, closed her eyes and sneezed. “What are you doing???!!” I shrieked. “I had to sneeze” she genuinely replied, “I made sure no one was behind me I before I stopped” …. “Child, please don’t stop the car in the middle of the street to sneeze.” Geez… Anyway, we pulled up to a restaurant in Forest park near the golf course that I never even knew existed. It was a dead giveaway then, the mystery money man had to be my Dad. He is a complete golf fanatic. Dad joined us a few minutes later and treated his daughters to dinner. I’m sure if my Big Little Sister reads this she’s gonna be mad we left her out. Well it wasn’t my plan sis, I just rode along, get mad at the teenager. LOL! We had a great time, and I made it home safe and sound. Whew!
What Did Carli Eat Today?
B- Free donut in the kitchen at work, which of course not filling so I ate the banana bread I brought too.
L- Steamed veggies with chicken and a Side Salad
D-Philly cheese steak (took off half of the bread) with a side salad, and shared order of sweet potato fries. Dessert – A little bite of my sisters Apple streusel cheesecake.
Saturday morning was gorgeous; it was a crisp & breezy 71 degrees outside. Perfect weather for outside activity. Me and Mr. Man decided to go for a walk in Forest Park. My ankles were hurting pretty bad as soon as we got started. I think it’s because I’ve continued to work out every day at work during lunch, and my body is really starting to feel the effects of all the extra activity. There were tons of joggers everywhere taking advantage of the day made for running. I was so jealous, because my heart wanted to run, but my body said otherwise. I probably should have taken a day off from activity, but I like the positive effects of eating less, journaling my food and daily activity. You know the positive effects like losing weight and feeling better mentally and physically. We were only able to finish about a mile and half, because my ankles just wouldn’t let me do more.
Today, I got up and went to church. After church me and my little sister went to Brunch at an upscale little bistro in the Central West End called Scape. The food was delicious. She’s a “vegetarian” ….well she describes herself as “not eating meat” because she’s not sure how long she can go without it. I think it’s just a teenage phase, but we’ll see. Anyway, she had an apple & brie omelet. I tasted it and it was surprisingly good. I would have never thought in a million years to put fruit in an omelet. I had the spinach & feta cheese omelet with chicken sausage. I ate half and got full, and brought the rest home. After doing a little laundry, I turned on Joel Osteen and got on my elliptical machine. Today, was cold (54 degrees) and rainy, I didn’t feel like leaving the house again. The elliptical had gathered a little dust from the lack of use, but I assume with the weather starting to turning cold, I will use it more. Anyway, I multitasked, and instead of sitting and watching Joel for half an hour, I pedaled for half an hour. I worked up a good sweat. Then, I sat down and wrote this post, and now almost it’s time for Dexter
on Showtime. OMG, Dexter is one of my absolute favorite shows. It’s so creepy good. I can’t wait for the season premiere.
What Did Carli Eat Today?
B- Chocolate Protein Shake
L- ½ Spinach Omelet, half breakfast potatoes and cinnamon raisin toast.
D- Left over Omelet and breakfast potatoes
So my girlfriend at work it still helping me stay on plan. We take turns cooking lunch and bring enough to share. And then we workout for the second half of our lunch break. We’ve done it for about 5 days now. It’s so nice to have somebody at work helping me stay focused and encouraged. At get this, I was able to button those pants today!!!! I was so excited. My home scale even shows I’m down a couple of pounds, in just these few short days of eating better and writing down my food. Today, she made ground turkey, spinach and stewed tomatoes over rice. It was raining outside, so we hit the stairs. I brought my extra deodorant, so I was good to go. We walked down 9 flights. Caught the elevator up the 12th floor, walked back down to the 1st floor, and then climbed all the way back up to the 9th floor. We had a great workout. We were sweating for real. I had to go to the bathroom and get a cool towel to wipe my sweat. I felt such a sense of accomplishment.
I went to the grocery store after work since tomorrow is my day to bring lunch. I decided to make whole wheat pasta mixed with green beans and stewed tomatoes. You put the tomatoes, green beans and a cup of chicken broth in a pot to simmer, while the noodles are cooking. I added garlic, pepper and seasoned salt for a little flavor, oh and Italian seasoning. People laugh because I put Italian seasoning on everything…. Then you add a cup of fat-free ricotta cheese to the tomato mixture and warm it together. Then you stir in the tomato ricotta mixture with the noodles. This was my first time making this dish. It’s a recipe I got from this site, that has tons of recipes with the weight watcher points included. The recipe actually called for spinach, which I forgot to get at the grocery store, so I just used the green beans I had at home. Mr. Man said it tasted good, and gave it a thumbs up. But, I almost forgot, to tell y’all when I got home from the grocery store, I still went on my Wednesday walk in the park with my best friend. Then came home and cooked. All and all I can say, good job Carli and pat myself on the back.
What Did Carli Eat Today?
B- Turkey sausage on eng muffin & an orange
L- My co-worker’s Turkey, spinach, tomato and rice stuff (It was really good too, and filing)
S- She also made “dessert” …Graham crackers filled with cool whip like an ice cream sandwich and put in the freezer. They were also very tasty.
D- Chicken and green beans, oh yeah, a biscut managed to somehow sneak in too.
Sunday Morning: I am excited about our Tango dance lesson tonight, even though Mr. Man seems really worried about stepping on my feet with his size 15 shoes (not size 14, as I had previously incorrectly remembered..hmmmm). Anyway, I got up this morning not feeling like getting dressed for church and watched Joel Osteen on my DVR instead. I was delightfully surprised that his sermon was about “Not Panicking” when the enemy is bothering us with unexpected troubles…. Was Joel in my mind, did he know that I had been panicking about gaining weight for the last few days? He explained the devil is mad that you’re helping others, making a difference and trying to discourage you! The Bible says no weapon formed against us will prosper, it doesn’t say no weapon will form …you may go thru difficulty, but because you’re a child of God, he will bring you out better than you were before. Your test will become a testimony….I was sitting on my couch waving my hands and clapping like I was in a real church service. Joel always knows how to put things in perspective. He’s coming to St. Louis on Jan 7th, and you know I’m there!
Sunday Evening: Time to Tango. We were dressed and ready to go. My Little sis snapped a quick pic of Me and Mr. Man with the just because rose and bottle of sparkling Moscato he bought for me.
We went to the Ritz, and got there just as the dance lesson was starting. I’ll be the first to admit that the stereotypical “black people got rhythm” gene skipped me. But Mr. Man, my bi-racial teddy bear…… he was like…well….what’s a nice word…ummmm….a concrete block. My sweetie is totally lost when it comes to dancing. The teacher taught us each step to the tango, and we rotated partners. One guy I danced with was a really good leader, it felt like I was actually doing it right. Then there was this older guy, maybe about 60 years old, and I think he was trying to kiss me. He was SO close to my face. I know it’s a sensual and even intimate dance, but I don’t know you dude, I do not need an up close view of your grey nose hairs. Finally, I was back with Mr. Man, we were having a fun time, but so far from dancing the tango. He told me he did step on one lady’s toe, and nervously held another lady too tightly. After the hour long lesson, we watched the 2 teachers, one of which was a 12 year veteran to dancing. All I can say is “WOW!” they were amazing, so in sync with each other. Towards the end it was so sexy that Mr. Man and I looked at each other like, are we even supposed to be watching this?
I have a completely new appreciation for dancing. I took Jazz, tap and even ballet as a little girl, but it was all choreographed. The teacher compared their dance to poetry, they wrote each line as a they went along, he moved and she gracefully followed, it was beautiful. I told Mr. Man, we can do this. As we sat on the fancy little hotel couches, I told him, let’s start back at the beginning. We looked into each other’s eyes, and sort of practiced the moves while sitting down, learning each other’s cues. Once we were ready, we got back on the dance floor. He thanked me for my patience. We were both so much better.
We didn’t do the fancy spins and turns, but we certainly got down the basics. It was a new experience and we both agreed to come again so that we could get better. Afterwards, we took the bottle of bubbly over my parent’s house and shared with them. My Dad gave Mr. Man major cool points for recommending the dance lessons, and for cutting my grass, making it no longer look like “no one lived there” and relieved that he wouldn’t have to “buy me a goat.” My mom was shocked when I explained that my generation did not learn how to “properly” slow dance as they did. Anyway, it was a fantastic ending to wonderful weekend. Before you know it, I’ll be the “Weight loss blogger superstar on Dancing with the Stars!”
What Did Carli Eat Today?
B- Bowl of Cereal
L- Salad topped with the steak I made
D- Applebee’s 2 or $20 with Mr. Man – Spinach Dip and Chips and Oriental Chicken salad (Only ate half, stopped when I got full)
I woke up this morning, determined to get in a sweaty nasty funky workout. The kind that makes you burn mega calories and lose weight. Struggling to button my pants really freaked me out…. I realized I hadn’t actually been out running for a while and wanted to get back with the program. I got Miss Nyah and headed to the park. It was definitely a lot warmer than it has been for the past week, but without the extreme humidity we had this summer. Nonetheless, I was sweating before I even got out my car. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I looked at Nyah jumping all around waging her tail, and wished I could share in her excitement about our upcoming routine. I put on my Week 3 podcast and got to it. The first two runs were fine. But the last two runs were pretty tough, I kept thinking to myself how amazing that I used to run for 3 whole miles and wishing I could push myself to run as fast as I ran after that chick that stole my purse. I slowed down to a walk during the last 3 minute run. I thought about those tight pants again, y’all might think I’m joking, but that really traumatized me. It pushed me right into gear as I finished Week 3 again.
Later that evening, Me and Mr. Man went to my friend’s BBQ. As soon as I arrived, I got a text from my girl at work that read “Eat vegetables!” I laughed and thanked her for her support and encouragement. Man, I’ve got good friends! I ate light early in the day so that I could eat a little more at the BBQ. I probably still ate a little too much, and decided I wasn’t going to post “What Did Carli Eat Today?” But, avoiding writing down what I ate doesn’t avoid weight gain. And unfortunately, there were no veggies at the party. But we had a good time, and I laughed every time my friend who reads my blog called him “Mr. Man”.
What Did Carli Eat Today? ( I was a total carnivore today)
B- Bowl of Cinnamon toast Crunch mixed with Fiber One
L- Piece of steak (random, but I had to cook it before it went bad)
D- At the BBQ – A Cheeseburger with lettuce pickle & onion, a couple bbq chix party wings, a handful of Doritos, 3 meatballs, about ½ cup of pasta salad. Not too bad, but then came the devil food. A little slice of both kinds of cake AND a caramel apple to go.
*Overall, I feel good because I good because I got in a great run and regardless of whether it was a perfect food day , I WROTE IT DOWN!
