Fun in the Studio

Unfortunately, I’ve been eating like crap, and grabbing fast food on the run, but I had SO much fun at my studio recording session. I told you earlier in the week that I’m making a new race day podcast for a 5K and 10K run. I hadn’t recorded in so long, I was almost nervous. Thinking, can I really do this? Will anyone even want it? Luckily my producer friend is a perfectionist. He won’t let me create garbage. Sometimes, he said my country St. Louis accent came out and I sounded like Bootsy Collins. He made me re-record every segment until I got it just right. “What’s a-hen-ha-lin?” he asked. “Adrenaline” I grunted back. I was trying really hard not to sound like Daffy Duck or a nerdy fifth grader, and my braces made it that much more difficult to enunciate.  Other times he said I sounded “too much like a phone sex operator.”

We’ve been friends for nearly 10 years and joke around all the time. So, as a joke, I took the phone sex operator critique and ran with it. I intentionally made the next segment sound as sexy as an advertisement for a strip club. I usually try to keep my blog PG, but this is too funny not to share… I seductively moaned into the microphone “keep pushing, you’re doing great!” He was totally caught off guard, and we laughed and laughed. “Don’t make me come in there!” he teased.

For the rest of the night, regardless of my tone, everything that was meant to sound encouraging, sounded completely inappropriate. “Wow, you’re really moving” and “Dig Deep” called for major laughs.   And, I giggled the whole way through, “How bad do you really want it? You only have 5 more minutes, you can do it!” Finally, 4 hours later, after re-recording some segments over and over, we finished all the voice prompts. Next time we’ll add the music and I’ll be that much closer to releasing my e-book and my new race day podcast. In the mean time, I guess I’ll go apply for a late night phone sex operator side gig! (just kidding …maybe.

My 4 Point Dinner

I went to lunch with an old co-worker friend.  We ended up going to the Bamboo Bistro, a fantastic Chinese Buffet downtown. I made healthy choices for breakfast that morning.  I had an english muffin with a 1 Point Weight Watcher Cheese wedge and a Lactose Free Yogurt.  I had all kinds of stuff at the lunch buffet, fried rice, general Tso’s chicken, fish and crab rangoon.  For dessert I had a few pieces of honey crisp pineapple.  I knew I had blown my points for the day.  I made up my mind right then that I was having stir-fried veggies for dinner and told my friend I was doing so as confirmation. 

Once I got home, I was tired and figured I could just grab some fast food and relax.  Luckily, I talked myself out of that foolishness.  I felt kinda bad about eating so much at lunch, so I decided to go to the gym as “punishment.”  Then I read somewhere that working out should not feel like punishment, and you should do activities you enjoy.  I turned on my new favorite toy the Xbox Kinect.  Sweat is sweat, whether it’s elliptical sweat or doing sexy dances to Rihanna in my living room sweat.  I had fun doing the 20 minute Dance Central fitness routine.  After my mini workout session, I was so against veggies for dinner I actually ate nothing.  I sat in my own silent protest to such a “horrible” dinner.  Then around 10 o’clock my stubbornness started to wane because I was hungry.  I went in the kitchen and chopped up some fresh zucchini and squash.  I put them in olive oil and sautéed them with pre-chopped frozen green peppers.  It was such an easy dish to prepare.  I seasoned them with a veggie seasoning I got from the spice store at the market. 

 After they cooked down some, I added some frozen chopped spinach.  It started to smell really good.  When it was ready, I topped it off with a little bit of shredded mozzarella cheese.  I can put cheese on just about everything but ice cream.  And…guess what? My 4 point dinner was delicious!  I couldn’t believe it.  It didn’t feel like punishment at all.  There was no meat, no side dish with carbs, and I was satisfied.  I even went back for guilt-free seconds!

Sometimes I Lose My Mind

I’ve been doing a really great job staying on the weight watchers plan for the last month. It’s really a mind over matter thing, but sometimes I lose my mind and forget I’m on plan. On Friday afternoon they sent out one of those dreaded food emails, detailing whatever free treats are in the office kitchen. This particular day it was chicken wraps. How bad could a chicken wrap be? It could be my afternoon snack. I hurried over to the kitchen eager to get one before they were gone, completely ignoring the fact that I wasn’t really even hungry. They looked good, so I got two. Prize in hand on the way back to my desk I saw the left over brownies from the same meeting at another secretary’s desk. Yummy free brownies, how dare she not include that in that in the email? Free dessert always tastes better. I got two brownies as well. Then it hit me as I looked down at the two handfuls of food hidden in the paper towel, so no one would see how much I really got. I’m a weight watcher now, trying to get healthy, I don’t eat like this anymore. I no longer hide food and mindlessly eat because it’s free or because it tastes good. I put one of the brownies back.

When I got back to my desk I started eating the chicken wrap which was very difficult with my new braces on my teeth. I threw the other wrap in the trash. But there, are starving kids in Africa, that’s wasteful right? Well, I’ll say a prayer for them and release the guilt of throwing away food. Well maybe I can take it home and give it somebody I thought. But in reality, my family would look at me like I was crazy if I brought over a half of a chicken wrap left over from a meeting at work. Now, for that nasty little brownie situation. I pulled up my WW e-tools online that I use to track my food points. I had pretty healthy day, and there was some wiggle room. I tracked the brownie, ate the brownie and enjoyed it.

As I walked in the door at home after work, one of my friends text me, saying “congrats on your weight loss.” I was hungry and just wanted to eat, and didn’t care what I ate. I was probably feeling this insane “hunger” because of the sugary brownie messing with my blood sugar. I made a quick pot of chili and starting filling up a monstrous sized bowl. “I don’t care,” I said out loud, “I’m hungry, I’ll eat how much I want” Right in that moment I heard myself. “Of course you care, you even have friends that care” I reminded myself. I put half of the chili back and counted my crackers according to the serving size on the box. I went to my laptop and pulled up my e-tools as I ate, tracking everything. Friday taught me an important lesson. Sometimes, along this journey, I will have moments that I temporarily lose my mind and revert back to old mindsets, but taking just a few seconds to re-assess the situation can make things back the way they should be.

Walking in Winter Wonderland

Okay, I’m totally aware that the holidays are so “last year,” but I thought it was a fitting name for today’s post.   Last night, I promised myself I would get in some activity.  I’ve done such an incredibly good job keeping Weight Watcher points.  I’ve tracked every single thing I put in my mouth this week.  I tracked the Garrett’s popcorn from Chicago, I tracked the bite of pastry that I pinched off in the kitchen at work, I even tracked last night’s midnight Cocoa Puffs n Peanuts snack.   (gee thanks a lot Special Friend for introducing me to the salty sweet chocolaty goodness)  It’s not the healthiest choice, but I guess it better than late night chocolate chip cookies.  But, I also tracked the good things like fruit and yogurt for breakfast and grilled chicken and veggies for dinner.  I decided that today, I was ready to add the activity back in.  Although I’m training for a half marathon and shouldn’t have taken a break, I didn’t want jinx anything, I wanted to make sure I had to the food together.  I’m working hard on pacing myself, and not trying to be Miss Everything.  I have not been this successful with food in a long time, and it feels good to be in control.   I feels good not to be on some outrageous restricting diet.  I can tell you guys are rooting for me, and I appreciate it.

Anyway, I figured since St. Louis had record high weather nearly 70 degrees in the middle of winter that I would walk at lunch with my co-worker friend while it was still daylight. I called his desk at the other firm downstairs and a woman answered saying he was “no longer with the firm.”  I was so upset that my friend was no longer there, we’ve grown close like siblings over the past few years.  We still talk daily even though we work at different firms in the same building, so I was totally caught off guard.  Instantly, my brain told me to feed my emotions.  Then I realized I needed a plan…quick.  I called to make sure he was okay, he hated it there anyway, we both miss our old firm.  The legal field can be pretty cut throat.  Thankfully, he was fine, so I stuck with the original plan.  I walked around, probably less than a mile, and walked to get a salad.  It was gorgeous outside, it made me think, now this is a winter wonderland! I was able to walk back to work, with my head held high.  I did it…eating healthy and activity in the same day, even with the stress of missing one of my best friends.  I’m taking baby steps y’all.  Like I always say in my podcasts, if I can do it, anybody can!

Dedicated

Friday night, my best friend had a sleep over to celebrate her 31^st birthday.  We’re a little old for slumber parties aren’t we?…  Well, I guess not, because we had a ton of fun!  We played silly games, like each person picked a personal theme song that was sung by everyone each time she entered the room.  My friend is a professional party planner and decorator deep on the inside.  I’ll be glad when she lets it out.  Everything was purple and black, down to the candles floating in the purple water and the purple M&M’s in the champagne glasses that she gave as parting gifts.  I took my X Box Kinect , and we played, the Michael Jackson Experience, The Black Eye Pea Experience and my favorite Dance Central 2.  Both of my sisters were there and my little sister was showing off, getting flawless high scores with her dance moves.  I said she was cheating because she’s on the dance team at her high school and the praise dance team at church.  She showed us all that big girls can move! …  Anyway, we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning watching TV and having girl talk about relationships and overcoming the challenge being single and wanting a husband and kids, all while the biological clock is ticking.  Some ladies were ready for children now and others (like me) will take it when it comes.

In the morning I took my Little Sister to her school dance competition (they won 1^st place in the Beyoncé competition) and then I came back to my BFF’s house for brunch.  That afternoon, I got my hair done and ran errands setting up new tenants.  Everyone is happy for me, but me.  I want that crappy building to disappear, but apparently there’s a greater plan that I’m unaware of.  Anyway, enough whining about my real estate “investment.”

So, you know I have a “Special Friend” that I dated for a while, but then we became “just friends” (his choice not mine).  And, ironically, it worked.  We still talk on the phone every day, but the conversation changed a little.  Like some of my commenters said, the things I liked about him as a potential boyfriend, are the same things I like about him as a friend.  I inspired him to train for the half marathon with me, and we keep each other updated with progress reports on mileage.  Even though we talk nearly every day, I hadn’t seen him since October.  However, Saturday, he wanted to train together.  I told him I was still healing from my “rafting injury” but that I could manage a slow walk. I was super tired, from no sleep at the slumber party, and running errands all day, but I didn’t cancel our training session.  It was already dark outside by the time he met at my house to head to the park.  He’s a big tall guy, and as a former military man, he tucked a pocket knife in his camouflage vest, and we took Nyah, so I wasn’t really worried about safety.  We had great conversation as usual, and things were really “friendly” until my back started hurting.  My ginormous boobs really take a toll on my lower back.  He saw I was struggling and stepped in close, holding me, helping me turn and stretch my back.  He did stretch my back, but I can tell you, with this handsome strong man cracking my back, I wasn’t thinking “friendly thoughts.”  I told him I was still transitioning from “dating” to “friend”, but rather unsuccessfully, at that particular time.  He laughed thinking I was just joking.  Luckily the stretching session only lasted a few minutes and I was able to get my focus back. LOL.  Tired, limping, and hormonally flustered, I managed to finish up 2 full miles, and we ended the night with a friendly hug.