2012 Goals Check-in

Time to check in with my 2012 goals:

Cook 1 new recipe each week
So far, so good.  I didn’t think I’d get a new recipe in this week because we weren’t planning on eating dinner at home this week.  Staying home on Sunday instead of going out to San Francisco worked to my advantage.  I made split pea soup with yellow peas that I found at the Indian market by my house.  Pretty yummy.  I didn’t follow the directions 100% though…  I dumped everything in the pot and let it cook instead of adding the carrots and celery in the last 30 minutes of cooking.

Eat real food
This one I’m falling down a bit on.  Most bread in the supermarket has some kind of weird preservative in it.  I’m also trying to use up my peanut butter and salad dressings before I buy more (budgets, ya know).  And of course the cookies and candy at work don’t really work so well for this.  I just need to focus more and be more aware of what I’m putting in my mouth and what I’m buying.  I can do that.  It might be difficult at Disneyland next week, but I’ll do my best.

No white grains
Do onion bagels count as white grain?  Or the rice at lunch yesterday?  Or the flour that’s used to make those delicious cookies in the lunch room?  I’m pretty sure they do.  *sigh*  FOCUS Danie!  I’ve been doing good except for those three slip-ups.  And my sister was super sweet to buy pizza with whole wheat crust for my nephew’s birthday.  Thanks Sis! Yay me – I’m almost succeeding with this one!

Finish one quilt or sewing project each month
All I have to do is attach a border to this hot pink quilted throw I made and the project for month #1 is done!  I also have the stuff I need to complete at least on project for month #2!  This goal is going well.

Buy a house, not a condo
I showed DH some McMansions around our neighborhood that we almost have 10% down on.  I think we’ll probably end up buying something a little more manageable payment and upkeep wise (read: smaller and cheaper).  We have 20% down on bank-owned prices for smaller homes, but we need to save more for closing costs and any repairs/upgrades the houses might need.

Learn basic web development technologies
I haven’t even started on this one.  DH showed me a series of videos I can watch to get the basics down and then take tests to get certified on this stuff.  I’m just not super motivated on this, though.  Got any tips to get me motivated?

Get Project+ certified
This is a direct response to some project management training work sent me to awhile back.  I have all of the training materials I need sitting in the 2nd bedroom upstairs.  Have I watched one refresher video?  No.  Read one chapter of one book?  No.  Maybe I need some prizes to motivate me, what do you think?

Run a 5k without stopping; complete three 5k races; complete two 10k races; complete at least one half marathon; wear a bikini comfortably in public
I decided to lump all of these goals together because they each build on one another.  I signed up for a 5k, I joined a gym, and my rib is healed so I can focus on these goals more.  My weight went up in response to the gym-going though.  Just a pound, but I know that is water retention from the upper body workout I did yesterday.  Seriously, my arm muscles are so sore that it’s a miracle I could turn on the shower this morning.  I also jogged on the treadmill twice this week, which felt really good.  I’ll keep doing that until I’m jogging for the whole 30 minutes the gym allows.

 

Weekly Recipe: Tagine Chicken with Quinoa and Stewed Vegetables

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to cook a recipe each week that I haven’t cooked before.  This week my new recipe is tagine chicken with quinoa and stewed vegetables.  I found both recipes on Allrecipes.com – it’s a great website to visit for inspiration.  I followed the recipe for tagine chicken pretty closely, and I just used the stewed veggies recipe as a jumping off point for what I actually made.

I had all of the ingredients for the tagine chicken except for the couscous.  So I stopped in at the grocery store to pick some up.  Upon looking at the box and reading the ingredients list, I realized that couscous is highly processed.  *sigh*  So I looked around for 100% whole grain couscous to no avail.  I’m sure it exists, but not in that particular grocery store.  Then I caught site of quinoa.  It seemed healthier than the couscous, so I bought it.  It was pretty good! The main dish was easy to make and made my house smell delicious!

Then I realized that I’d be feeding a bunch of people and there probably wasn’t enough without some kind of side dish, so I did a search for Vegetables on allrecipes.  I found the recipe for vegetable tagine and used it as the basis for the stewed veggies I actually made.  So, here’s what I did with those:

Moroccan Inspired Stewed Vegetables

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 4 carrots chopped
• 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 head broccoli, chopped into medium-large pieces
• 1 can sliced stewed tomatoes, low sodium if possible
• 2 tbsp  tomato paste
• 48 oz fat free, low sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 15 oz can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• salt and pepper

1. Heat the oil in a pot over medium heat.  Add onion, garlic and bell pepper.  Cook until onion is translucent.
2. Add the carrots, potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken broth, coriander, cinnamon, garlic powder, turmeric, and cumin.  Bring to a boil and then simmer until potatoes and carrots are tender.
3. Add the garbanzo beans, salt and pepper.  Simmer until the garbanzos are warmed through.  Serve.

This recipe makes PLENTY of food.  And it goes very far as a side dish.  You could make a vegetarian meal out of it if you put it over couscous or quinoa.

So here’s the downside.  I forgot to take a picture.  That means you don’t get to see all the yumminess for yourself.  You’ll just have to make it and see!  DH really liked it.  Our friends liked it too.  I liked that most of the ingredients didn’t have weird stuff in it.  I mean, the apricots in the chicken dish had a couple of ingredients that protect the color, and the canned stuff all had extra salt, but other than that it was real food.

I’d totally make this stuff again.

This food thing is hard!

Granted I haven’t been focusing super much on food for awhile, but I don’t remember it being this hard!  Like today, I added one of those little packages of liquid creamer to my coffee when we went out to breakfast today without thinking anything of it.  During a lull in the conversation I thought “I wonder what’s in that.”  I looked at the package and saw that it listed 2% milk, heavy cream, and some weird additive.  Three ingredients, but one of them was weird.  *sigh*

Then I ordered a Denver omelet.  Sounded right: eggs, ham, bell pepper, onion and cheese.  I should have ordered it without the cheese – who knows what’s in the cheese that makes it orange?  Side of hash browns that I only ate two bites of, and a slice of wheat toast.  Notice it’s not 100% whole wheat?

OK, OK, it’s basically day 1, right?  I’m out of the habit of analyzing everything on the menu and all the pieces of a particular plate when I’m ordering.  I just need to do better.  I’ll know better for date night on Wednesday.

Tonight should be easier for dinner.  My brother is coming over to make us some dinner.  He’s making his “California Salad” with tilapia on top and we’re pairing it with an amber ale.  He’s a chef and the author of http://goesgreatwithbeer.com.  It only has one entry so far because he caught a nasty cold right after the first meal.  He’s back tonight.  I’ve had the California Salad before, but this time it will be a little different.  We couldn’t find the strawberries that he’d normally use so he’ll be substituting with raspberries.  And normally there isn’t any meat added in, but since it will be a main dish salad there needs to be something to go with it.  I’m totally looking forward to it.  Since we moved out a few years ago, I haven’t been able to spend a whole lot of time with him and I kinda miss him.

OK…  now onto the exercise portion of things.  I’m pretty limited in what I can do since I fell and cracked a rib a couple weeks ago.  I’m moving better now, but I can’t run or lift anything heavier than 5 pounds right now.  And even lifting 2 pounds repeatedly makes me cry.  So as soon as I finish with this entry, I’m planning on trying some lower body stuff just to get moving.  Squats, calf raises, going up and down the stairs, that kind of thing.  Nothing that requires twisting or using my abs too much – I don’t want to hurt myself worse!

And I weighed myself last night with my trusty Wii balance board…  I’m at 159.4 pounds.  Ugh.  I need to be around 145 to be at a healthy BMI.  So that means I have 14.4 pounds to lose.  I know BMI isn’t the be-all of health and fitness, but it’s a gauge to use.

Time to do some light exercise to get things moving.

Food and Fitness Goals for 2012

I’m sitting on the couch pondering my goals for the next year, and letting them marinate in my brain.  The ones that I’m thinking about the most right now are the fitness goals and the food goals, mostly because they go hand in hand.  And also because there are some limitations to what I can do right now.

Let’s start by further defining the food goals:

1. Cut out wheat and rice
2. Eat “real” food
3. Cook one new recipe each week

I’m focusing on the food goals because those are usually the most difficult for me to follow/stick with, and because they have a direct impact on my fitness goals.

Cut out wheat and rice
Hmmm… OK, this one isn’t really what it sounds like.  It doesn’t mean that I will be cutting out all wheat and rice products.  It means that I will be only eating products made with 100% whole grain, 100% brown or wild rice, 100% corn meal.  If there’s any other weird grains, sugars, additives or chemicals added in, it doesn’t go in my belly.

Eat “real” food
I’ve noticed that when I eat food that has lots of “fake” things inside (like additives, flavorings, colorings, preservatives, etc) it takes more to fill me up and I’m not as satisfied.  When I eat real food I need to eat less and I’m generally more satisfied.  OK, to be fair I really like to have a bit of something for dessert, but doesn’t everyone?  So the rule is that the food that goes in my belly needs to be real.  In other words: no weird additives, no weird flavorings added, no weird preservatives, etc.  Birthday parties and other celebrations are the exception to this rule.

Cook one new recipe each week
I’m hoping this one will help me meet the other two food goals.  Plus I know it’ll help me meet the fitness goals.  It’ll also help me put to use the many cookbooks I have at home.

OK, now it’s time to further define the fitness goals

1. Run a 5k without walking
2. Complete three 5k’s
3. Complete two 10k’s
4. Complete at least 1 half marathon
5. Wear a bikini in public comfortably

Run a 5k without walking
So, you’d think that with all of this training I’ve done that I could run a few miles without stopping somewhere in there to walk, right?  Well, you’d be wrong.  To tell you the truth, I’ve only run 1 mile without stopping and that was awhile ago.  So, to make myself feel like I deserve to call myself a runner, I’m going to run (or jog, whatever) 3.1 miles without stopping.

Complete three 5k’s
I find that when I’m training, I get bored if I don’t have little things to work towards.  Upcoming races are awesome for the motivation factor and I love how short a 5k feels.  I just need to figure out which 5k’s to complete.  Oh, and complete means just that: complete it.  It doesn’t matter if there’s walking mixed in, as long as they’re done and I’m happy with what I’ve done.

Complete two 10k’s
Again, having upcoming races as motivation is awesome, and a 10k is twice as challenging as a 5k.  So, as I get back into running, I’ll be working towards the 10k length.  And again, complete means complete.  I don’t have to run the whole thing.

Complete at least 1 half marathon
My plan is to complete the Disneyland Half Marathon on September 2, 2012.  I’ll be using the 5 and 10k races I complete along the way as training.  And if I don’t die and if I don’t totally hate it, I’d like to complete the Wine & Dine half marathon in Disney World in November.  So yeah, complete means finish it.

Wear a bikini comfortably in public
As I’m training and eating healthier foods, I should be losing weight along the way.  I’ll also need to work in some weight training too.  I don’t want to be “skinny-fat”, and doing this will help me become a more effective runner too.  So, I know this is cliche, but I’ve never worn a bikini in public because I’ve always been too fat to do so.  Being able to do this would be tangible proof that I’m not the girl they made up a song about in Jr. High.

I’ll come up with a training plan in another post… this one is already too long as it is!

The New Year’s Resolution Post

It’s the first day of 2012.  Millions of people around the world are making resolutions today.  Resolutions designed to fix some aspect of their lives or improve an internal fault.  A couple years ago my resolution was to try a new restaurant every week.  I’d noticed that I (or should I say we) were getting into a rut of eating at the same restaurants all the time.  There wasn’t that sense of adventure or even a sense of trying anything new when we’d go out to eat.  I thought that resolution would fix that problem.  It did, for the most part.  Sometimes we’d realize that it was Saturday night and we hadn’t yet tried a new restaurant, so we’d dash out the door to get the new restaurant in for the week.  Sometimes we’d start the week with good intentions – we’d even have a plan! – only to be derailed because of illness or other life events.  It was a good resolution and a fun one too.

I don’t remember what my resolution was last year.

This year I started out with a long list of resolutions, much like I do every year.  And this year I narrowed that list down to a few major goals:

1. Household goal: Buy a house.  Not a condo.
2. Work goal: Get Project+ certified and learn web development technologies
3. Crafting goal: Finish 1 quilt or sewing project each month
4. Fitness goal(s): Run a 5k without walking; complete three 5k’s, two 10k’s and at least 1 half marathon; wear a bikini comfortably in public
5. Food goal(s): Cut out wheat and rice; eat “real” food; cook 1 new recipe each week

I’ll explain, explore and define these goals more as the week goes on.  After all a goal will never be met if it’s not defined.

Evil white robes

I fell when I was running yesterday. I slammed my head, hands, elbow, hip and knee into the ground when I tripped. I picked myself up, walked almost to the corner and passed out cold. I woke up called my husband (no answer) and tried to walk again. I started to get dizzy so I tried to sit at the corner. When I bent down I passed out again. I don’t remember doing this, but apparently I called my husband. According to my call log it was every minute or so for 10 minutes. My finger must have slipped and hit my brother’s name – when I kinda came to I could hear his voice but I didn’t know where I was. I finally remembered and he came to find me.

I went to the ER and got a CT scan. All clear, just a concussion, lots of scrapes and bruises. My ribs hurt from where I landed on them. It’s like I did too many sit ups or something. All in all a scary day.

I drifted off quickly when it was time for bed. I immediately started dreaming. I talked in my sleep, but DH said the voice didn’t sound like mine. It was like a gravelly, evil whisper. I didn’t go back to sleep easily. This is what came to me as I was relaxing tonight and thinking about my dream:

Figures in cowled white robes.
Hands, feet, faces cannot be seen.
Floating above the ground to complete their mission.
Delivering evil to the world; they darkly chant their words.
A narrow escape into wakefulness.
A knocking in your ear subsides.
Your heartbeat returns to normal.
You drift to the other world again.

DH said I talked in my sleep several times last night. It’s been known to happen (remind me to tell you some of the freaky things I’ve said and done!) but there aren’t normally as many talking episodes as there were last night.

I hope tonight is more peaceful for both of us.

Dress = Morals?

Today was rough.  Started out with itchy, watery eyes and progressed to a random stranger implying I was immoral because of the way I was dressed.  *sigh*

Allergies suck.

Room capacity limits suck, especially during a very popular children’s program.  Sorry people, I can’t let you in no matter how much I’d like to.  The Fire Marshal set these limits for a reason and there is literally no place for you to fit.  You can beg, cry, threaten, stomp your feet like a 2-year-old, but I’m not letting you in.  What’s that?  Your child is in there?  Well, you’re welcomed to go in and remove him from the program, but I cannot let you stay inside the room.

Then, soon after the program ended, there were a million people in the library (only a slight exaggeration).  One asked if I was in charge.  I said that I was one of the managers and asked how I could help.  She then proceeded to tell me that I was dressed inappropriately for working with children, and that it might give young boys ideas that they were far too young to understand.  Then she said that she wouldn’t expect someone of my morals to understand the importance of wearing a bra or not showing cleavage.

I thanked her for her input, turned around and walked away.  What I really wanted to do was show her my (very pretty, very supportive) bra, and then point out how hideous she looked.  I mean, seriously?  A man haircut that looks like it’s turning into a ‘fro, bad teeth, buttoned up shirt tucked into belted mom jeans, not a lick of makeup, socks with sandals and a bad attitude to match.  But I didn’t.  I went back to helping the rest of the patrons, reminding children to walk, tracking down parents of crying children, and working my ass off to keep the library running smoothly.

One of the staff wanted to know what the lady said because she could see that I was upset.  I told her what happened, and the staff member said “She told you she was worried about children seeing cleavage?  She told me that someone needed to tell you to cover up, because her husband had been staring at you the whole time you were out here.” Sounds like good old fashioned jealousy and insecurity to me.

So I feel mildly better about the situation.  Especially since regular patrons have been complimenting me all day about my dress, and encouraging me to dress up more often.  And especially since the lady called my boss who said that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my outfit, that it was appropriate for library work, and that she would not be telling me that I shouldn’t wear it again.

It still just bothers me that she – a complete stranger, whom I had never seen before – would have the nerve to come up to me and question my morals based on a dress that was considered appropriate attire.  DH asked me if she was part of some weird religion.  I couldn’t tell you whether or not she was, but it might explain why she felt it was OK to be so mean to me.  Otherwise, I’d have to fall back on the jealous, ugly and crazy explanation.

After the beer, pizza and relaxing on the patio with my husband I’m definitely feeling better.  It’s amazing how the simple things can make everything better.

Sure-Thing-Taking

“Yes, risk taking is inherently failure-prone.  Otherwise it would be called sure-thing-taking.”  –Jim McMahon

Do  you know people who only make the safest choices?  They avoid risk unless there’s truly no other choice… or unless something inside them is rebelling against safety. This quote, found on SparkPeople, made me think about the risks I take and those I don’t.

I tend to look for the sure thing.  It’s safer and easier in a lot of ways than taking a risk.  But there are always risks to be taken.

I know I’ve taken a risk by signing up to run a half.  And there have been failures along the way with my training.  I’ve learned from some of those failures, and I’ve applied some of what I’ve learned so that I don’t repeat the same failures.

I think that maybe we need to look at risk-taking as a learning experience.  We learn a lot about ourselves from the risks we take, and the problems we run into along the way.  The way we deal with those problems, the way they affect us, and our propensity for repeating those mistakes… those all tell us about, well, us.

My newest risk-taking venture is the greeter desk.  The whole thing is a risk.  We’re redefining the way it works, the way the staff work at that desk, the amount of time they spend at that desk, the tasks that are completed at that desk, etc.  And our model could (possibly) be transferred to other libraries.  Now that I’ve received input from my staff, I have some place to start with this venture.  The risks are still there.  We just have to be nimble as we discover that certain ideas aren’t working, and try new solutions as needed.

OK, time to get ready for my day.  I need to talk to the branch manager about the ideas that the staff came up with and find a plan for making some of it work.

I Can Feel the Wind Go By

“I can feel the wind go by when I run.  It feels good.  It feels fast.”  -Evelyn Ashford

I came across this quote in the motivational quotes section of SparkPeople.  Sometimes when I run I feel just like this.  And sometimes I struggle with every fiber of my being to remember this feeling.

Do you remember when you were a kid and you’d run, just to run?  Or you’d ride your bike as fast as you could before coasting along?  Ms. Ashford’s quote reminds me of that feeling.  The freedom, the speed, the power… that feeling of flying.

I’m working towards having that feeling every time I run.  Or at least the majority of the times I run.

Right now running is difficult for me.  I don’t know why something that was so easy (or at least not exhausting) a few weeks ago is so difficult now.  Is it simply the change from a 2/1 run/walk cycle to a 3/1 that’s the culprit?  Am I not fueling or hydrating properly?  Is it my sleep?

Until I figure it out I need to remember that feeling from childhood.  That feeling from the perfect run.  I’ll keep working towards it and know from experience that it’s possible to achieve.

I Read: Brave Girl Eating

A couple of days after I wrote “My Offensive (?) Obesity Post” I came across a book called Brave Girl Eating by Harriet Brown.  It was returned to the library along with a lot of other materials on Anorexia and Bulimia.  Obviously, someone was doing research on eating disorders.  When I see such a huge number of materials on one particular health topic, I often wonder if they’re researching for school or if it’s for a more personal reason.  It’s none of my business and I would never ask, but still I wonder.

Seeing this book (and all of the others like it) in the sorting bin reminded me of my earlier post about the stigma that probably should be associated with obesity, the difficulties associated with leading a healthier lifestyle and how we learn to be obese by mirroring our families.  I admit that I don’t know much about eating disorders, so I picked up Brave Girl Eating because it was the story of a regular girl, with a healthy family life and no history of abuse or mental illness who “fell down the rabbit hole of anorexia.”

I really liked that this book wasn’t just about the struggles of Kitty, the adolescent girl who developed anorexia.  It was about the family’s struggle to bring her back through Family Based Therapy (FBT) instead of the typical institutional therapy that is prescribed for most anorexics. I also appreciated that Kitty’s story was used as the common thread as Ms. Brown discussed the research she performed on her daughter’s illness.  Her research included clinical trials, studies, articles, books and websites – many of which painted a terrible picture of Kitty’s future.

Those of us who have never had an eating disorder find it unfathomable that someone would refuse to eat, or would purge in some way just because the image they carry of themselves is so skewed that they cannot see the skin and bones everyone else does.  We cannot imagine how difficult, trying, and painful such an illness is for the families who feel powerless in the face of this disease.  It’s all just sick and sad, and not researched nearly enough.

So, while I do still think we need to do everything possible to not be obese, I think we also do need to make sure that we’re not taking it to the other extreme: starvation.