I filled out the paperwork to vacate my apartment and made a note to drop it off in the morning. Oh irony, how it taunts me. Not real irony, of course; I mean the Alanis Morissette kind. I mean, my apartment flooding the day that I signed the paperwork to vacate it–that is so like rain on your wedding day.

When my alarm clock went off at 5:30AM, I woke up and stepped into this:

You may ask why I stopped to take pictures when my apartment was flooding and dumping water into the apartment below mine. But this was me in crisis mode: since the guy who lives below me had already called maintenance, I searched for the shut-off valve for the water and, failing to find it, couldn’t really do much else. There used to be books stacked between the two bookcases on the right side of the picture; I moved those to safety, then grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures of the damage in case I should need them later. Then I took all the books off the bookcases and moved them elsewhere; then I moved the bookcases into my bedroom; then, since the water seemed to be creeping toward my bedroom, I moved my TV stand, since it’s right next to me in the picture.

Later, I moved my other hallway bookcase, my dining room table, my exercise bike, my end table, and my sofa. The floor was wet everywhere thanks to our friend humidity.

Maintenance came and shut the water off, then replaced the water heater, and in the process mucked up my kitchen floor and tore holes in the linoleum.

You can see that at this point I’ve moved out of crisis mode and into “Um, my kitchen is a little messy, I should clean it” mode.

I also practiced making frazzled faces.

Shortly after the property manager came to talk to me, the carpet guys came to do bloody murder on my carpet. They vacuumed up the water, then set up a fan to blow under the carpet…

And a dehumidifier in the water heater closet.

At this point, I was staaarving–I’d managed to sneak in my normal breakfast in between bits of mayhem, but I’d been terribly clever on Wednesday and left my lunch leftovers at work so I wouldn’t have to repack them for Thursday (I’d just thrown the bag of carrots and cheese and the containers of hummus and tomatoes directly into my bag Wednesday morning). This meant my lunch was at work. And I had nothing to eat. So I dinked around for an hour or so trying to decide what I wanted and then ordered side items from Papa Johns. Chickenstrips and cheesesticks, which served me well for lunch and dinner.

After lunch, I intended to do some freelance writing so that the day wasn’t a total waste, but exhaustion hit me like a ton of really heavy objects, so I cleared off space on my couch (which was shoved up against all my piles of books) and slept. Later I took a walk around the lake. Or maybe that was Wednesday. I know I took a walk, though.

Friday morning I went to work and had my breakfast, and then finally had my leftover lunch.

I also had some awesome chocolate covered hazelnuts from Oregon. I love it when visiting scientists bring food!

I left work early to see what was going on at my apartment, since despite the property manager’s claim that she would be in touch, no one called to let me know what was going on. Apparently my leasing office is also good in a crisis, but not so much with the aftermath. I got home to find that nothing had happened in my absence–the fan and dehumidifier where still there–so I left to go to Whole Foods and Target for some grocery shopping.

I came back to discover that people had been in my apartment while I was gone, with no notice before or after (other than this missing equipment). I expected that they’d come pick up their stuff, but it still bugs me that I wasn’t told when this would be happening. It reminds me of that time they let the steam-cleaning people into my apartment on the wrong day and majorly freaked me out.

But my carpet was fixed…

And my water heater closet…was still gross.

I made swiss steak for dinner.

…there’s a steak under there, promise.

Then I took pictures of the shambles that were my apartment. Remember how I had the laundry room, the dining room, and the living room all cleaned and organized?

…okay, it’s not that bad. But you also can’t see the other side of the couch. I got a lot of my furniture put back in the correct spot Friday evening, and subsequently had one of the best nights of sleep I’ve ever had, curled up on my sofa.

Saturday morning I woke up and had some yogurt, then got back to work on moving things back into their antediluvian state. Naturally, I got hungry, so I threw together a big lunch.

Spinach artichoke dip (from the prepped section at Whole Foods), a few bits of broccoli, some salad tomatoes, two carrots, a banana, almond butter, and a piece of cotswold cheese. I made two cheese selections this week and picked this one because it had chives and onions in it and therefore had to be awesome. And it was. But very strong–as I move away from plain cheddar, I’m seeing how one ounce of a good, strong cheese can be plenty.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach here, though–I only ate half the banana and left one of the carrots for dinner.

I did have some of my new chocolate bar (Whole Foods brand of dark chocolate peppermint crisp). Not as good as the Lake Champlain kind, but it’ll do.

My bookcases made it back into the hallway, empty–no point in putting the books back on them when I already took them off and can pack them (when I have enough boxes).

Dinner was a repeat of last night, with less potatoes and onions and the addition of the leftover carrot from lunch.

Note the massive prep bowl of Brummel & Brown in the background. Yes, I ate it all. If there are potatoes on my plate, there is almost always a massive dish of butter or B&B just out of the picture. Don’t judge me, y’all.

Post-dinner snackage…a piece of the dark chocolate peppermint bar, and a piece of the dark chocolate hazelnut toffee bar (one of those ones with the endangered species on it). I wasn’t too impressed by the latter–apparently I like my dark chocolate at 54%-55%, not 70%+.

I totally still ate it, though.

Today I slept in again,  thought not so well as I had the night before, and woke up to more yogurt (I’ve stopped taking pictures of my yogurt most days–same old Liberte Mediteranee yogurt every day!). I then hit the lake trail in an attempt to get some running in, but my fitness has (obviously) decreased since I haven’t been able to run the past couple of months, and because it’s hot outside, so I didn’t get much running in before I had to walk. I’m supposed to start training for my half marathon this week and I’ve already accepted that I’m going to be a little bit behind, but that’s okay. I came home and immediately threw my ice pack on my foot, which has been hurting a little more than it had been recently since I started walking again, but not enough that I’m willing to go back and have it checked out again (yet).

Lunch was some broccoli, salad tomatoes, and carrot sticks with spinach artichoke dip, a dish of trail mix, and a piece of my other cheese selection, mahon.

Mahon is a hard Spanish cheese that taste delicious when eaten with tomatoes. I’m a huge fan of cheese + tomatoes.

I spent the afternoon going all Operation: Clean Sweep on my kitchen and have now checked it off my list–hurrah! That leaves the balcony (entirely gardening stuff), the bathroom (which I’ve worked on twice throughout the week–shouldn’t take long at all), the bedroom (half okay, half not so much), and the closet (um…yeah). I’m happy that I was able to make progress despite having what other, more dramatic people would call the week from hell. (Remember me griping about Wachovia shutting down my bank account on Monday? Oh, the fun week that lay ahead…!).

Well, now that I’ve snacked on a cranberry orange Pure bar and blogged for an hour, my dinner seems to be done. It’s time to eat again…!

Greetings, all! I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. I’m having a great weekend because it thunderstormed last night and dropped the temperature way down–when I walked outside this morning it actually felt cool! Of course, then it got up to 86, but that’s so much better than it has been! I wish it would stay this way all summer…

Apparently I wanted to show off my mad cheese portioning skillz, because I took this picture of 1 oz of cheese. First try, baby.

Thursday’s breakfast was Liberte Mediterranee apple crumble yogurt, with which I have utterly fallen in love. I never would’ve suspected that this would be my favorite, but it’s so awesome. (If you’re still eating yogurt with high fructose corn syrup and fake fruit in it, stop and get some Liberte…mmmmm…)

I had a top-secret meeting Thursday morning, to which a co-worker brought Dunkin Donuts. Remember when I said I was trying to eat mostly raw and vegetarian before dinner? Yeah, well. If the meeting bribe had been cookies or brownies I would’ve been able to resist, but donuts are my kryptonite.

[I'd make a joke here about how I'd sell U.S. secrets to foreign governments for the right amount/flavor of donuts, but I work for the government, so that's not really funny. And I can't say I'd sell out my own mother for donuts, because that would be wrong. Plus, she reads this. So just imagine how much I love donuts. It's a lot.]

Anyway, I was informed of the presence of donuts at the meeting early enough that I put off eating my planned mid-morning snack and ate a donut instead. I had a glazed chocolate cake donut and it was dreeeeaaamy…and then I took one for the road…

Lunch was this gigantor salad.

It had romaine lettuce, tomatoes, hardboiled egg, peas, celery, mushrooms, onions, sunflower seeds, the cheddar cheese that I was weighing in the first picture…maybe more, I don’t remember. And I’m too lazy to get up and find the paper that I wrote down all the weights/ingredients on. (Lest you think I’m weighing things for the wrong reasons–I’ve been weighing all these highly veggie-based meals to make sure that I’m getting enough calories during the day.)

I also mixed up some dressing–dijon mustard and lime juice. I added it to the salad, put on the lid, and shook it like a Polaroid picture. Or an Etch-a-Sketch.

Unfortunately, Gigantor Salad was too big and was taking so long to eat that I gave up after eating about a third of it.

I also had this bowl of grapes.

Later in the afternoon, I decided to eat my other donut.

Oh, it was good. Mmm.

Thursday’s dinner is not on the camera and for the life of me, I can’t remember what I ate. I think I wasn’t very hungry so I just ate a couple of cupcakes late in the evening. That sounds right. I’m out of cupcakes now, by the way!

Friday was supposed to be a Lazy Friday–aka, the Friday that I get off every two weeks in exchange for working 9-hour days instead of 8-hour ones–however, I’m completely swamped at work this month. Several co-workers encouraged me to go ahead and take my day off because the work would still be there when I got back, but I knew that if I took a three-day weekend with so much left on my plate, I’d spend it worrying about the upcoming workweek. So I went in anyway, and I got a lot of work done, and left feeling like next week’s workload would be a little more manageable as a result.

—

I’ve mentioned that I’m going to start trying to eat mostly raw and vegetarian before dinner on weekdays, but I keep forgetting to explain why I’m trying this out. There are a couple of completely random reasons.

1.) I feel like I don’t eat enough vegetables and especially fruit, and if you eat raw, that’s what you eat. And since fruits and veggies are so low in calories, you eat a lot of them.

2.) I’ve grown to really like bringing in meals of carrots/tomatoes/assorted veggies and hummus and fruit–I always feel better after eating something like that than if I went and got a hamburger or even if I brought dinner leftovers.

3.) When I bring leftovers, I have to reheat them. My laboratory has about 45 employees/cooperators and we share our floor with a couple of other groups that have probably 20+ employees between them. We used to have four microwaves on our floor; now we have two, and they’re both in the break room, and since most of us take our lunch between 11AM and 1PM, lines tend to form. If my lunch doesn’t need to be re-heated, I don’t have to spend time waiting for a microwave or heating up food.

4.) I almost always eat at my desk, either while I’m working (if I used my lunch break for a walk or if I’m eating a snack) or while I’m checking news or blogs. Finger-food type meals–carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, grapes, etc.–are really easy to eat while I’m working at my computer, and then I don’t have to wash any utensils or use any disposable ones.

5.) I like meat, but let’s face it–it’s higher in calories and easier to overeat on than fruits and veggies. By reserving it for dinners and weekend meals, I’m helping to keep my calorie intake in check.

There are other reasons, but those are the ones I can think of right now. Of course, I’m new to this all-veggies-most-of-the-time experiment, and it was Friday, and I was stressed, so I had yogurt for breakfast and then acquired a bag of peanut butter M&Ms that I munched on all day. I may also have had some Cheetos and a KitKat. But that’s okay–Fridays have always tended to be my “cheat day” and I did much better this week at eating well than I expected to.

And then for dinner, I made sure to eat well.

I steamed some tuna and the last of one of my containers of broccoli, then served it with some mixed beans and grapes. I went back for a similar-sized piece of tuna and more beans afterward. Tasty dinner!

Heath loves to sleep on my couch, curled up in a ball with his nose tucked into his paws.

Unfortunately, he heard the camera turn on and uncurled from the cuteness. Sigh.

I’ve been wanting to find a cute, not-sleeveless dress to wear to church, because when I wear a skirt and shirt to church I feel like I’m going to work. I’ve also been trying to find a new bra, because the one I wear the most is getting worn out and the hooks are starting to rust. And I remember that episode of House where the lady died because she scratched herself with her bra hook and got a staph infection. It could happen…anyway, I’ve bought and worn several different brands of bras over the past few years and I keep coming back to one in particular that just fits better than the rest. And since it’s practically the only one I wear, it’s definitely in need of replacing at this point.

I decided to take an evening trip to Ross on Friday night. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything–none of the dresses were doing anything for me, and they seem not to carry my bra size (a common problem when I go bra shopping).

This morning I had some yogurt for breakfast, then headed to the Cameron Village shopping center so I could finally go to The Athlete’s Foot and get my new shoes and orthotics. I’ve been dreading going to Cameron Village because there’s always so much construction in the area, and because I’ve never been and I perceive it as a very crowded place. I don’t like to go to crowded places. I knew there was construction on one of the streets I would’ve needed to take to get to Cameron Village, so I tried a different route–and ended up sitting in one spot for 10 minutes while I waited for a flagman to tell me and the mile of other cars that were stopped that we could drive in the one lane of traffic that was open.

In fact, I spent more time sitting in traffic than I did in the store. My experience buying shoes at The Athlete’s Foot was much better than my previous experience buying running shoes at another local shop. At that store, I got the impression that the employee who helped me wasn’t really trained in how to fit shoes. And I felt like when he asked me to walk for him, he was staring at something other than my shoes (if you get my drift). I ended up with my Nikes, which have been good shoes, but I wasn’t really eager to return to that store in the future.

However, today, I was the only customer in the store for most of the time I was in there and the associate who helped me was very nice. I handed him the recommendation form I got from my doctor’s office and after he measured my feet and had me walk (and pointed out that I was walking on my left foot differently than my right one, so I know he was paying attention!), he went into the back and came out with four or five pairs of shoes for me to try on. I tried them on without the orthotic inserts in first, and it turned out that the first pair I tried on was the pair I felt the most comfortable in. And I was happy, because they were purple!

Shopping for running shoes is such an aesthetic crapshoot…you don’t go with what’s pretty; you go with what’s comfortable, and if you end up with ugly shoes, well, that’s life.

I’m very  happy with these and their purple accents, though!

And after I got home, I discovered this little clear window in the bottom, backed with lime green, and I laughed, because while the insoles that came with the shoes were purple…

…the pair of orthotics that the associate felt were the best for me were lime green!

He had me try on the shoes with these green Superfeet insoles (this was the brand that the PA said he liked best), and they felt really weird. Instead of hitting along the middle of your arch, where you’d expect them to hit, they hit toward the back of your arch, more towards your heel. I walked around in them for a minute or so and the sales associate said he could tell I was walking better in them, but he had me try on the “less aggressive” blue insert in my right shoe to see how it worked. I could barely feel it and he thought the green ones would be better, so I went with those.

Now I have this cool purple/green running shoe thing going. Awesomeness! My recommendation form came with a 10% discount and I ended up paying about $135 for the shoes and the orthotics. I hope this helps with my foot issues! Honestly, I’m not feeling very hopeful at the moment, just because this has been going on now for over two months and seems like it will never end. But I will try to be more optimistic…

I stopped in at Marshalls on the way home and checked for dresses and bras, but had no luck. I didn’t even look at the box my shoes came in until I got back to my apartment, where I discovered that my new shoes have the coolest name ever.

Defyance. Bwhaha.

After I got back, I made nachos for lunch.

Then, in the cool dim light of my living room, I took a wonderful afternoon nap. And then I woke up all hot and sweaty. Bah.

I made dinner–a leftover piece of tuna, leftover beans, peas, and grapes.

I headed to Crabtree Valley Mall in a final attempt to find a cute dress. I decided to wear my new running shoes, because I was warned that I needed to break in the orthotics slowly by wearing them for a couple of hours the first day, then a little more the next day, etc. And sure enough, by the time I got done wandering around the mall for an hour and a half, my feet were tired and kind of hurt…

I went to the lower level of Macy’s and while I did find a cute dress that fit (and even fit in a size 8), the neckline was very weird–it looked like it was supposed to be an off the shoulder dress with a cowl neckline, but the neckline didn’t fall right in either of the sizes I tried on. I decided it was the dress and not me. I did see lots of cute sleeveless dresses with cardigans, but I’m not willing to spend $128 on a dress and $49 on a sweater, so I didn’t even try them on.

Then I went to Sears and they had nothing. I took the escalator up, then walked back over to the top level of Macy’s to see if they had bras in my size. Clothes shopping is such a hassle for me–I have a short torso, an hourglass figure, and a small ribcage but a large bust–and bra shopping is the worst because most stores don’t carry my size, and if they do carry it, it’s the lowest band size and the highest cup size they stock and is therefore very hard to find. I’d almost given up at Macy’s when I turned around and found myself staring at the very bra I was wearing. Except, of course, it was a few years newer. I went through the racks and managed to find a bra (seriously, a single bra) in four different styles of that brand, then tried them on and decided to buy the two that fit the best. One was $30 and one was $32, and they were on sale for 30% off, so I was shocked when I paid for them and they cost $36.95 together.

Turns out one of them rang up at $16.99 retail, so it ended up costing less than $12. I’m not sure if that was an accident or not, and quite frankly I don’t care, because I’m a few pounds away from having to special order bras that cost more than a week’s worth of groceries off the Internet and I’ll take what I can get now.

But I still don’t have a cute dress to wear to church.

Fortunately, I did not encounter any elephants in the road on Friday (Lazy Friday!). I started the day off with some Liberte yogurt and then, knowing that I was going to a food-heavy party later in the evening, I opted for a mostly fresh, raw lunch.

Grapes, cherries, cherry tomatoes, carrots, roasted garlic hummus, and a piece of provolone.

I had a PA appointment in the afternoon and ate half of a Pure cranberry orange bar leftover from Thursday right before I left. I couldn’t find the cranberry orange flavor locally, so I went ahead an ordered a box of them when I ordered my MP3 player. I was a little hesitant because some of the Amazon reviews mentioned the flavor being off, but I love love love them.  Taaasty.

And then I headed to CFPSM because my left foot? Not better. The first time I went to have it checked out the PA told to come back if it wasn’t significantly better in three weeks. After hurting for a couple of days, it went to just hurting intermittently. And then there were a couple of days when it stopped hurting completely, probably because I ran a mile after not running for a couple of months and then everything else hurt. Naturally, this was around the time I had an appointment with my doctor about my blood pressure and since I thought it had stopped hurting I didn’t say anything about it.

Then a couple of days later it started hurting on and off again, and earlier this week it started hurting pretty much all the time, worse than before, to the point that I was limping in the evenings and icing my foot before bed. (If I’m icing something, it hurts pretty bad. ‘Cause I’m stubborn hardcore.) Also, it was radiating to other parts of my foot and my ankle. This is extremely uncool! Especially since I stopped walking/running in hopes that it would get better and it got worse instead. So yesterday, four and a half weeks after my first visit, I went back. The good news is that I had three x-rays and there is nothing structurally wrong with my foot. The bad news is that my feet are made of biomechanical fail, ’cause I walk too much on the outsides of them. I can’t help it, it’s the way I’ve been walking for 24 years.

So now I have a list of exercises to do in an attempt to strengthen my foot muscles and sometime this week I’m going to go to The Athlete’s Foot to get fitted for a new pair of running shoes that address the specific problems that I have. I was given the option of buying some high-quality pre-made orthotics or having custom ones made and decided to try the pre-made ones first. Then I’m going to try that for another month and hopefully it will solve the problem and I can get back to running…November 7 is inching ever closer!

Oh, also, when I was having my vital signs taken, my pulse shot up to 135 and my BP was around 145/95 (don’t remember the exact numbers). Awwwesome. I was actually shocked enough when I was told the numbers that I said, “Damn!” and then hastily added that I-swear-my-numbers-aren’t-that-high-at-home-anymore-really-honest. I did end up with a headache from my BP getting that high, though, which was annoying because I had to rush home after my appointment, grab a couple of things, and then run to the store to pick up the last of the ingredients I needed to bring to the party I was going to…

One of my co-workers decided to invite our female colleagues over for a cooking and eating party. There were about 15 of us total but I ended up being one of the first ones there (after I rushed! bah!). That was good, because I got to eat half of this by myself…

…I lost track of  how many cream-cheese-salsa-and-cracker sandwiches I ate. I could not stop putting them into my mouth.

I also joined another co-worker in breaking into this lemon tart from Trader Joe’s early. I am always a willing accomplice in such matters. Plus she brought the tart and told me I could have some early.

Man, that thing was tart. But tasty.

I also had some Advil. Apparently I looked unwell, what with my headache and my foot that decided to start hurting after being prodded earlier in the afternoon.

Our hostess had made a concoction of lemonade, lime juice, and pineapple juice to drink. I don’t like pineapple juice, but I tried some anyway, and was pleasantly surprised. I could barely taste the pineapple, which is a very good thing.

The aim of the party was that we were supposed to break into teams and come up with a dish–pizza, salad, or dessert–and then bring the ingredients to the party and cook there. We ended up with four or five different pizzas, a couple of salads, and some Chinese dishes courtesy of a researcher who is visiting from Beijing.

We all loaded up our plates in an attempt to try everything, and I was not the only one who couldn’t clean her plate. Too much food!

Let’s see if I can remember what was on my plate…I ate (or tried to eat) a piece of vegetarian pizza with tomatoes, onions, and peppers; a piece of pizza made with pesto sauce, mozzarella, and tomatoes; a salad made with beans, tomatoes, and sage (from the hostess’s garden!)…

…seven-or-eight-layer salad, a cabbage-filled crepe…

…and some dim sum and sweet Chinese rice balls (which I adventurously decided to try even though they reminded me somewhat of eyeballs).

Jamie and I teamed up to make a blackberry, pear, and goat cheese tart for dessert…

…and I also tried some of the giant cookie that someone made with honey instead of sugar.

There were also banana and Nutella crepes, but there was no way I could eat anymore–I was stuffed by the time I left after two and a half hours. I went home to nurse my headache, which never quite went away, and my poor gimpy foot. I sacked out on the couch with some cherry limeade, yogurt, and Six Feet Under.

I woke up on my own before 9AM, had some more yogurt, and noted that my foot, which typically hasn’t been hurting in the morning, still hurt from the night before. Also, I have this half-dollar-sized bruise on my wrist and no idea where it came from. Hmph!

I spent the morning cleaning and being sucked in by America’s Next Top Model, then broke for a thrown-together lunch of nachos, sans ground beef.

I cleaned some more, then decided it was time for an afternoon nap. I fell asleep for a couple hours before some thunderstorms that were passing nearby woke me up. After determining that they weren’t headed where I wanted to go, I drove away to Cook-Out for some fried deliciousness.

But I’m not made of the stuff I used to be. I ended up saving some of my chicken strips for later…

…and also part of my milkshake.

My plans for tomorrow include going to church in the morning and going for a walk-and-or-run, depending on the weather. I’ve decided that I’d rather my foot hurt while I’m exercising than hurt while I’m sitting around watching TV, since for now it’s just going to hurt no matter what. Might as well hurt while I’m improving my physical and mental health. I’m hovering around 151-152 lbs right now (though the scale at the doctor’s office was 155 lbs even) which is great considering that I haven’t been exercising, but I really want to get back below 150 in the next couple of weeks.

I’m headed to bed soon, but first I need to the exercises the ATC gave me for my foot…sigh…

I decided last night that I needed a break from posting, so I took one. But I still took pictures!

Yesterday’s breakfast!

Blurry in the light of my dying camera battery…

Speaking of dying electronics…I decided that it would be a good idea to try another run yesterday morning. This resulted in epic fail, because it was way. too. hot. for that nonsense. I ran a little ways and then trudged walked back. It was awful. But before I left I tried to charge my MP3 player–the Creative Zen Microphoto that I’ve had for several years now–and it wouldn’t move past the Microphoto screen! It’s been acting weird lately and I was expecting it to die soon, but I thought I’d have more time.

I’ve already researched and ordered a new player–a Creative Zen Mozaic–that should be here whenever Amazon’s Super Saver shipping allows. I almost paid for real shipping (but didn’t because the free shipping is usually very fast). I’m always about five seconds from bursting into song at any given moment and part of the reason I’ve enjoyed taking these two hour walks every evening is that it gives me a chance to “relax” and listen to music. I’ve also used my MP3 player to time my running/walking for the Couch to 5K program and (when I get to where I can run again) will be using it for the One Hour Runner program and amusing myself with it while training for November’s half marathon. I also take it with me to work every day so I can listen to it when my work area gets too loud or just when I need some music.

I will miss you, Microphoto–you were a fine MP3 player, and now you shall be a fine storage device…

Annnnyway. After all my rejoicing about how great my foot has felt for the past couple of days, naturally yesterday when I was out walking it started hurting again. I think at one point I took about 20 steps straight where it hurt every time I put my foot down or picked it up. And then it stopped again.

I ran out of clean cups (where do they all go?) so I had some very fancy-looking Crystal Light.

And then I accidentally had a pink-themed lunch.

Smoked salmon, red grapes, and bing cherries. On a red plate. Completely unintentional.

I spent the afternoon doing laundry and watching episodes of Six Feet Under. I could do with a lot less cursing and way fewer gratuitous sex scenes, but so far I’m really loving the show.

I snacked on some Potato Flyers while I watched.

Also, I brushed Heath. This dog sheds like mad.

At least he goes with my carpet.

I’ve decided to use my oven as little as possible this summer. Not because it caught fire a few weeks ago, but because when I was using it after that incident, I realized just how much hotter it makes my little apartment. I don’t like it when my AC has to run all the time (well, I like it, but my bank account does not), so this summer I’m going to try to focus on using my George Foreman Grill, my food steamer, my slowcooker, and my rangetop.

Yesterday I cooked up some delicious black bean, salsa, and chicken soup in the slowcooker!

This stuff is so good and so easy to make. Four cups of water, two frozen chicken breasts, two cans of black beans (drained and rinsed), a jar of salsa (I use a 24-oz jar), and a handful of sliced mushrooms…cook on high for about four hours, then take out the chicken, cut it up, and add it back in. Stir some sour cream into each serving and you will have awesome soup.

I had two bowls. It took restraint not to eat more…

And then I went for a 4+ mile walk. After eating two bowls of soup and drinking two glasses of Crystal Light. I had to pee for the whole freakin’ walk, man. I took Heath with me because whenever I tell people I don’t take him walking with me they make sad faces, so he ended up getting too hot and then spent the night on his bed in the living room.

I felt bad for him, so I slept next to him in the living room floor. Okay, usually on the weekends I sleep in the living room floor anyway, but last night I did it out of guilt.

This morning I did not go to church. I slept in and it was marvelous.

For breakfast I had yogurt and M&Ms.

And for lunch I had smoked salmon, cherries, and Potato Flyers.

Heath spent much of the day in his bed. Again.

Meanwhile, I listened to music and cleaned.

I took a break for some leftover soup…

Managed to only eat one bowl this time. I’m saving the rest for dinner tomorrow night!

I started to go for a walk around 5PM and ended up unable to because it started thunderstorming. Instead, I ran out to Target and Harris Teeter to do a little shopping. I picked up some cookies for my cookie jar at work, then came back and did my 3.3 mile walk. And guess what? My ankle hurt the entire time. Great. Fantastic.

I came back and needed to take my medication, so I had more cookies than I should have.

Dude, I love E.L.Fudges. Haven’t had any in a long time. Did you know that one E.L.Fudge cookie has 90 calories? That’s insane! I had two, and two fake Target-brand Oreos, so I ate like 300+ calories in cookies right there. And that is how America got fat. Delicious cookies.

Speaking of being fat: I’m back down to 151.2 lbs. Whoo-hoo! I’m hoping that by next Saturday I’ll have managed to lose enough to be under 150 lbs, and after that, I don’t ever want to see a 5 in the tens place on a scale again! You hear me, scale? I’m serious. I’ll take your batteries out…

I’m pretty sure that 3/4 of my calories today came from M&Ms.

I feel like I slept well last night (haven’t checked the GoWear Fit today), but I was so tired when my alarm went off at 5:30AM that I shut it off and went back to bed. Bah. Need to stop doing that.

Breakfast was some Liberte and peanut butter M&Ms…

I started snacking on this big bowl of grapes before I took a picture…it was full when I started!

During lunch I took a walk. A shorter than normal walk. Because while I was walking by the marsh, I saw the biggest spider I’ve ever seen in the wild and not in a web. It was just walking across the path…I almost stepped on it! It squicked me out for the rest of the day. Also, I saw a snake that was folded up like an accordion and taking a nap in this hole!

Yes, I went back later with my camera in hopes that he would still be there…he was not.

Lunch was some leftover pasta from Monday’s dinner.

Here’s where things went bad…I knew I hadn’t brought enough to eat for the day, so I went to the vending machine and bought a giant bag of peanut M&Ms. But the machine gave me two bags.

I proceeded to eat them both. That was bad. It did keep me full for a very long time, though…

After work, I came home and decided to try out a run. I did my 3.2 mile route and started out with a walk, then manage to run about a mile before my left ankle started hurting badly enough that I felt it unwise to run through the pain. So I walked most of the rest of the way–did throw in some running on a downhill slope to see if that helped, and while my ankle didn’t hurt while I was running, it did hurt for a while after I stopped.

Also, I was attacked by mosquitoes while taking Heath out and now now my arm is swelling up. Awesome.

I actually wasn’t hungry when I got back from my walk, but I needed to take my medication so I had to eat something. I opted for a half cup of Peanut Butter Panda Puffs.

Gluten-free kid’s cereal…expensive but tasty.

Well, I’m going to crawl into bed and try to stay up for the finale of Top Chef Masters…I’m pulling for Susur, but I think Marcus has it in the bag…

I’ll probably find the actual CD sometime this week.

This post is pretty much a testament to how little I eat on the weekends. Friday I had peanut M&Ms for breakfast, peanut butter M&Ms for lunch, strawberries and whipped cream for a snack at a meeting, and this for dinner:

A hot Italian sausage I found in my freezer and some grilled onions. Cooked on the George Foreman Grill. Don’t marvel at my cooking skills or anything.

Saturday I slept in–ahhhh!–and when I got up  I decided to eat the last of my wheat-free lemon poppyseed muffins. Taaasty.

And then I pretty much didn’t eat anything else until dinnertime. I did take Heath on a short run–my first run in weeks! We jogged for about 15 minutes probably, which tuckered the poor doggle out and set him sleeping the rest of the evening.

I made some sausage, spinach, and lentil soup for dinner, except instead of sausage I used ground pork and seasoned it myself.

It was different than last time–I didn’t have any onion left, and the lentils were different than the kind I used last time. But still good.

Something about springtime makes me crave Cook-Out milkshakes, and since I really hadn’t had much to eat, I took Heath with me and got a Reese’s milkshake. Mmmmm…

This morning–oh, this is bad–I didn’t get out of bed until a totally unreasonable time (I went to bed laaate and then got up at 5AM and did my state taxes and goofed off for two hours). Then I went to Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Harris Teeter–remind me to NEVER do that again on a weekend. Oy vey. When I came home at 4PM, I had my first food of the day. Seriously. Some peanut butter M&Ms I picked up at Harris Teeter. I could live off M&Ms. But I won’t.

Hey, while I was at Trader Joe’s, I bought me a potato! Since I am a potato hog, I stopped eating them on January 1 and pledged not to have them again until April 1. Well, that’s this Thursday, and there’s gonna be a baked potato with Greek yogurt and butter and bacon and salt and it’s gonna be freakin’ awesome, baby.

I did eat real food today, promise.

I had a little steak, some hummus and carrots, and some grapes.

Also, to encourage myself to eat actual food instead of M&Ms for lunch (I’m sure you’ve noticed my tendency to eat them for at least two meals a day during the past two weeks), I went ahead and prepped my lunch for all four days that I’m working this week. Awesomesauce! Plus, I bought a box of Pure bars and lots of Liberte yogurt, so there’s breakfast for the next couple of weeks, and I bought some grapes and washed them and put them in the fridge for easy access. Cleaned out the fridge so I can see what’s in there, too.

Less than an hour until bedtime…yikes…

Last night I pedaled away on my recumbent bike for a half an hour while eating a homemade peanut butter cup and reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I was a bad child and never read the Chronicles of Narnia, although I’ve enjoyed the first two movies. I got about a third of the way through it before I went to bed at 10PM. Then, for some reason, I woke up at around 4:15AM, with my alarm not set to go off for another hour. After about fifteen minutes I realized I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I jumped out of bed and set about doing stuff…including unloading my dishwasher and putting away my clothes drying rack. It was so so so so nice to  come home to a clean apartment on a Monday afternoon…

…so anyway, I decided to go to work early, ’cause I was up. I got there at 6AM and ate my breakfast while reading e-mail and doing the sorts of things one can do while eating a Pure bar, a Chobani peach Greek yogurt, and three-quarters of a cup of Leapin’ Lemurs cereal.

Why so much for breakfast, you ask? I didn’t go to Whole Foods for my beloved Liberte yogurt over the weekend, so I grabbed some Chobani to eat for breakfast. But Chobani has about 100 calories less than Liberte. So I ate some delicious gluten-free peanut butter and chocolate cereal to add some more calories.

Speaking of peanut butter and chocolate…I started getting hungry around 10AM, since I’d eaten breakfast early. Look what was hiding in my bag…

Protein! In the form of a chocolate peanut butter cup! Yum.

I went for a lunchtime walk on a crazy convoluted path through campus because of some construction that’s being done on the trail. Afterward, I had some sausage, lentil, and spinach soup.

It doesn’t take the light too well, does it? Still good, though. I will add this to my potato-free soup file.

A little while before I left work, I started feeling hungry, so I got two little mini Snickers out of a coworker’s candy bowl. I checked the ingredients list to make sure they didn’t have wheat in them, and then double-checked online–hey, they’re gluten-free! So are M&Ms…mmm…

It somehow came about that I haven’t had wheat since last Tuesday, when I ate those four Girl Scout Cookies, and while I’m not necessarily trying  to embark on my I-Will-Eat-No-Wheat-For-Two-Weeks experiment…well, if it’s already been almost a week, why ruin it with some candy? I’ve noticed that my eczema doesn’t look as bad as it did, but I have no objective way of measuring that unless it clears up completely.

Also, one day I’m going to eat the rest of the Girl Scout Cookies.

After I got home from work I changed into my running clothes, threw my chef’s jacket on over top, set the kitchen timer for 15 minutes, and set about putting away the dishes I’d washed last night and washing the ones that were in my sink. Then I ran away! For 32 minutes! That was One Hour Runner Week 5, Day 2, if you’re counting.

My legs were tiiiiired after that. Still are. But I found the strength to make tacos…

…and I will confess here and now that I usually put a picture of three tacos up, but I generally eat five at a time (half the box). However, tonight I ate only the three you see here, and they were scrumptious. I was in taco heaven. Perfect tacos!

I also had a side of grapes.

And now, because I don’t have to clean my kitchen or my living room or my bathroom, I am going to take this glass of Crystal Light and this peanut butter cup and go sit on my exercise bike in the living room, with my lilies in bloom, and ride my bike while reading my book. Because I can.

Friday was only a partial day at work. I got there (not early like I’d planned, but on time!) and broke out my breakfast while reading e-mail. I mentioned earlier this week that since I started counting calories on workdays, I’ve been getting really, really hungry, but that I thought it was more related to how I was loading those calories, not to how many I was getting. So instead of eating a Liberte yogurt for breakfast and then having a snack later in the morning, I went ahead and had my yogurt along with a Pure cherry cashew bar.

And what do you know…it worked! I didn’t start getting hungry until around 11AM, when I was heading out to meet Jamie for a lunchtime walk.

My lunch was a giant salad topped with cheddar cheese and another piece of albacore topped with sour cream and seasoning. Oh, and cranberry-walnut-gorgonzola dressing.

I’m sure I must’ve grabbed something between lunch and taking Heath to the vet, or gotten something shortly thereafter, but I didn’t take a picture and I don’t have my food log with me (it’s such a long walk to the living room)…oh well.

Heath’s trip to the vet ended in him being muzzled while a tech held him down for his shots and so that the vet could look in his ear. I don’t know what’s with him, but the last couple of times  he’s gone to the vet he’s been very tense. I think he remembers the time I took him there to get his nails clipped, when he spazzed out big time. It’s so weird, because he’s so friendly to strangers normally. He wasn’t being aggressive, just cowardly.  The vet squatted down in the floor for five minutes and tried all manner of tricks to coax him over to her, and the most she could do was look in his eyes and pat his coat. And even that took some cajoling. He did lick her a couple of times, but she was trying to tell him that she was just going to look in his ears and it wasn’t going to hurt, and he was sitting sideways refusing to look at her, and I said, “Um, I think he doesn’t believe you.” And he didn’t.

Oh well. He’s on medicated eardrops twice a day for the next two weeks for his now-chronic ear-gunk situation. I had to buy more treats at the store to appease him…

Heath and I took a nap shortly after arriving home on Friday and didn’t get up ’til late…just in time to see Team USA win a medal in the short track relay. I reheated some of my soup from earlier this week, then watched My Sister’s Keeper, then went back to bed…

…then got back up, got on my exercise bike for 30 minutes, did some cleaning, wrote out a grocery list, ate more soup, and went to the store. Then I came back from the store and took Heath on a 30 minute jog, then rested for about 5 minutes after I got back and went immediately into the 30 Day Shred, since I hadn’t done it Friday night. Whew!

My reward for all this? Nachos…

MMMMMM.

Did some more cleaning afterward, and admired this week’s flowers–Asiatic lilies!

All the bouquets at Harris Teeter were $4 this week, so I decided to go for the lilies. Almost got the sunflowers, but there were only three  to a bunch and I figured hey, why not get the most bang for my buck…

I went to sleep early again, then woke up midmorning and tried to watch Twilight. Unfortunately, the DVD was so scratched that it wouldn’t play (something that rarely happens with my Netflix choices, but does happen on occasion), so I decided to check out what was available on Netflix’s instant services. And that’s how I wound up staying up until 5:30AM watching Supersize Me.

I went back to bed after that, slept in, then decided to make the tasty-sounding soup my mom linked me to yesterday. She was very clear that if I enjoyed this soup, I had to give her credit on the blog for pointing it out to me, so…here you go, mom.

Sorry for the poor picture–it doesn’t do the soup justice, but it’s hard to get a good picture when there’s steam rolling off your food. This is sausage, spinach, and lentil soup–crazy easy to make and crazy tasty, too. Just cook up a pound of Italian pork sausage, then add six cups of water, 16 oz of salsa, a whole chopped up onion, a bag of spinach, and a cup and a quarter of dried lentils, cook for about 30 minutes until the lentils are done, and you have awesome soup. So awesome that my first act upon finishing my bowl was to scoop some into a jar to take with me for lunch tomorrow.

After that, I set about cleaning some more. I remembered something I heard on Hoarders about there not being a point in keeping sentimental things if they’re buried where you can’t even find them, so I decided to stick every picture I found on the wall in my hallway. It needed some color, anyway.

Most of them are of dogs, mostly of Heath…I need to order some more prints off Snapfish so I have more recent photos!

I also found this picture of me at my highest weight from the summer of 2004. We went on a cruise and I was being menaced by a pirate at the dinner table!

I’m not sure how much I weighed in this picture, but it was around 170 or 175. Around this time I was wearing size 16 jeans and was determined not to go any higher than that…and I didn’t, but I didn’t go any lower for another year or two, either. Since I had an empty nail in the wall in my kitchen, I decided to hang this up there as a reminder of how far I’ve come!

This is me today, getting ready to take Heath for an afternoon walk.

151 lbs and trending downward…whoo-hoo!

Before we went for our walk, I decided to make some chocolate peanut butter cups! I made full-sized ones this time. They’re crazy simple to make…

…even simpler if you forget to put the brown sugar in like I did. Didn’t affect the taste much at all, though–I’ll probably leave it out in the future.

After we got back from our walk I had to taste test one.

I tried to spread out the chocolate on the tops before I put them in the fridge, but to no avail. I was worried they’d be too peanut buttery because it looked like there was very little chocolate…

…and then I discovered that the chocolate had just sunk down into the middle. Awesome.

A while later it was dinner time, so I served myself up a plate of various goodies on my nice clean bar!

Steamed salmon and asparagus, a plum, some co-jack cheese, and carrots and tomatoes with Greek yogurt dip.

Pretty and nommy. And I ate it on my nice clean dining room table, while the US/Canada hockey game played.

Now Heath and I are both winding down for the evening…

Unfortunately, my downstairs neighbor (who is hardly ever home when I’m home) has been here all day, and I won’t do my exercise DVD when I know that someone is in the apartment below me. So I’m skipping that for this evening and will try to fit it in tomorrow along with my run. For now, I’m going to go finish putting together my breakfast, lunch, and snacks for tomorrow, and then I think that I will do something relaxing, like read a book while enjoying the present cleanliness of my apartment…

It was nice (both mornings) to be able to just grab my bag and my nalgene bottle out of the fridge and go to work. No flying around trying to find things to pack. I had a Liberte yogurt for breakfast yesterday morning. When snack time rolled around at 9AM, I dug into a big bowl of carrots and tomatoes, accompanied by a double serving of hummus.

I’ve tried the hummus that you can get at Harris Teeter and didn’t like it at all, but this platter I got at Trader Joe’s is really good–all four kinds!

During my lunch break, I took a walk. It was raining. I came back in looking like a drowned rat, but assured myself while I was drying my hair with paper towels in the bathroom that I was totally hardcore.

I warmed up with the rest of my curry for lunch.

Looks disgusting, tastes great…can’t wait for my latest Penzey’s order to get here; I ordered some new curry seasoning, among other things…

Afternoon snack was some cheese and half of an apple.

Since I got to work at 6:45AM, I got to leave at 4:15PM. Yay! By the time I got home it was very foggy, but in the mid-50s and cloudy. Perfect time for a run! I planned to go out for a 30 minute run, since the first three weeks of One Hour Runner are all 30 minute runs. But even though my run was slow, I felt pretty good about it, so I decided to tack an extra 5 minute onto the end. I ran for 35 minutes, which means I can start Week 5 of One Hour Runner tomorrow (30/32/38 minute runs). I expected to be sore today, because my 5K times have both been slightly above 40 minutes and I was sore for days after, but no such bad luck…

After my run I decided to make a huge salad in a small mixing bowl.

Lettuce, sunflower seeds, cheese, tomatoes, bacon, mushrooms, and raspberry gorgonzola walnut dressing. It was extremely tasty and I wolfed it down, but I guess I didn’t have enough protein in my salad (though it had plenty of calories). I took a nap after dinner and woke up hungry at 9:30PM. I had a few chocolate-covered almonds, packed my lunch bag, and fell back to sleep around midnight, but I was still kind of hungry…

This morning, I got up at 5:40AM (yay!), and got to work at 7AM. I had another Liberte yogurt for breakfast–they’re one of the few things I can eat so early in the morning, and they’ve got 230+ calories each.

For a mid-morning snack, I had some grapes.

…they didn’t taste so great after being squished in a container and refrigerated. Remember, kids, don’t store your grapes in the fridge (unless you have to because you washed them the night before and you need to put them in your bag so you don’t forget them).

My hunger from last night started coming back around 10AM so I broke out some of the lunch goods in my bag. It was around this time that I noticed everything I’d brought, with the exception of the yogurt, was finger food. The better to eat while working…!

I had some salami and cheese…

And some Nut Thins. I made little sammiches! Nut Thins don’t taste a thing like crackers and they look like Tostitos Rounds, but they taste pretty good for what they are.

I went for a walk (with Jamie!) during lunch. It was a nicer walk than yesterday’s. Tomorrow, of course, it may snow…

Sometime after the walk I broke into my carrots and hummus for the day…

The green hummus is cilantro parsley, and it’s very good!

Late in the afternoon I was still hungry, but it felt more like a craving than actual hunger. I decided that today should not be a wheat-free day and busted out the Girl Scout Cookies in my drawer. Lemonades! Yum. I ate four. They were delicious, especially since I hadn’t been eating them non-stop for days.

I put in 10 hours of work today and got home around 6PM. My first order of business was to get some soup going on the stove. While it cooked, I did Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred. I can already tell a difference–I almost made it through both of the anterior raise segments today. Yay!

After the Shred, it was soup time.

Ye old veggie beef soup. I had three bowls, as usual…if I was still hungry before I started eating, I’m not anymore…

The thing I hate about getting home at or after 6PM is that I only have a little bit of time to do anything before it’s time to go to bed so I can get back up and go to work again in the morning. But at least I actually went in at 7AM today instead of lazing around and rushing into work at 9AM. Yay…

And what a difference a few hours can make in the way you feel. I was a little sore this morning when I woke up, courtesy of last night’s 30 Day Shred. I wasn’t nearly as sore as I thought I should be, though–for instance, my abs, which I figured would be killing me, only hurt if I actually made a crunch-like movement. After my run–everything hurts. My calves hurt, my abs hurt, my arms hurt, my shoulders hurt…I feel sore all over when I move, like having the flu without the fever. Oh well, this too shall pass away…

…with the help of some chocolate-covered almonds…

This was my post-run snack–a half serving of dark chocolate covered almonds, washed down with some lemon-lime Crystal Light Fitness. And since I just went ahead and counted calories all day today, I’ll let you know that it was 30 calories for the drink and 115 for the almonds.

Dinner was a piece of steamed salmon (267 calories!), a crown of steamed broccoli (35 calories!), a handful of steamed sliced mushrooms (13 calories!), a bunch of grapes (59 calories!), and a cup of brown rice (216 calories!). I sprinkled some garden salad seasoning on the veggies, salmon, and rice, too. I busted out my kitchen scale when I started pulling things out of the fridge and just went ahead and weighed everything while I was waiting for the rice to cook. Since I knew how many calories I’d consumed through the day and how many I was going to eat for dinner, I knew to go ahead and eat an entire cup of rice instead of just half a cup, because I was coming up short. It’s much easier for me to count calories when I use the weights instead of the other measurements–a cup of rice can be a different amount depending on how you pack it in the cup,  but 6.9 oz of rice is 6.9 oz of rice.

(I used Calorie King for the measurement, by the way–all the sites do it a little differently, as I see from typing in some of the items I ate into SparkPeople!)

After dinner I had another five chocolate covered almonds, which would be about 115 calories.

And for my final snack of the evening, I had a big bowl of fruit with some of that delicious cream cheese dip.

I weighed the cream cheese dip this time just for fun–it was a little easier (and less messy) than using a measuring spoon. I had half a banana (49 calories), half an apple (55 calories), and three strawberries (22 calories). The dip was 100 calories.

That puts me at around 1675 calories for the day, and I try to shoot for between 1600 and 1700. That wasn’t too hard and I feel satisfied and was never too hungry throughout the day (except for when I woke up at 11:30AM, of course). I’m hoping that I’ll be able to prepare my breakfast, snacks, and lunches during the workweek on the night before and just go ahead and plot out the calories then, all in one go–that would make it much easier to count calories, which is a process I often find extremely annoying.

Don’t worry, I won’t be posting calorie counts every day, just once in a while…

Now that the sun’s gone down there’s a bit of a chill in the air, but it still feels pretty good outside, and it’s supposed to be lovely again tomorrow. I’m off to either curl up on the couch and watch the Olympics or clean while watching the Olympics. I’m leaning toward the former…and maybe a nap while the bobsledding’s going on…