I'm ready to Roll!!!

I’m back.  Got my *P* so I can talk again.  I don’t get it.. every month right before *P* gets here I don’t feel like doing anything, talking to anyone, don’t feel like working, really I just want to sit on my sofa and be a big blob.  Actually I kind of feel like a blob.  But I’m better now.

This is my 4^th week since I started working out… And in another 4 to 5 days it’s going to be the moment of truth.  I haven’t been able to get a good feel about the changes my body is going through because around TTOTM I get a lot of water retention and bloatedness.  So in less than a week I’ll be able to do a weigh in and lean muscle vs. body fat test.  Yay!  Can’t wait.

I didn’t go to the gym today, cause today is the first day of you-know-what, so I’m feeling a little weak.  But I did take my doggie out for a 45 minute brisk walk to get my heart rate up a bit.  I’m aiming to get up in the morning and do a little gym time before work.  Won’t have time to do a night time workout cause I have a date with my Irvine Boy at Disneyland at the Blue Bayou restaurant.  Fun fun… we have to go cause my pass is going to expire on my birthday.  Can’t believe I’ve had my pass for a year already…and it’s my birthday again in another week.  My birthday is on April 8^th, so I’m starting my celebrating on April 1^st.  Celebrating for one day is just too short, too fast.  So I’m celebrating birthday week.  I have nothing planned, but just the thought of it is nice.

Well I guess this year the birthday week will drag out a bit because I also have a trip booked with my girl’s to Vegas, staying at the Venetian from Friday, April 13^th to Monday the 16^th.  Can’t wait!  We’re going to sleep till we feel like waking up, order room service, go shopping, eating, walking, and everything else that’s fun… can’t think of everything right now.

Went to the market yesterday and Albertson’s is having a sale on Lean Cuisines again!  Stocked up on my fave sandwiches by LC, also some lighter mac and cheese… Yum yum yum!!!  They were like 5 for $10, where as normally they’re $4.50 each.  I never buy them when they’re not on sale.  Totally not worth the money.  LC is actually one of the very few frozen food that actually tastes good AND not that bad for you.  Most of their stuff is around 280 calories with 7g of fat.  It’s definitely enough for me to eat for one meal if I’m eating 6x a day.  I don’t eat it more than probably 2x a week because even though it’s low in cals and fat, it’s still high in sodium.  But they’re absolutely nice to have around when there’s nothing else better to eat.  I also got some more Eggos.  They came out with a new cinnamon flavor, decided to give that a try.  And some 100 cal multigrain Thomas English Muffins w/ 8g of fiber per muffin!  Made my own healthy egg muffin breakfast sandwich this morning with 2 egg whites, 1 slice of center cut bacon, some spray butter, and a few shakes of pepper… for a total of 159 calories.  Seriously yum.

It’s Friday!  Hope every one had a great week and going to have an even better weekend.

Irvine Boy is possibly going to take me to the wild animal park down in SD this Saturday.  So that might be fun, haven’t figured it out yet.  It’s all very confusing for me at this point.  I wanna make sure I don’t see some sad looking animals.  If they look happy, then I’ll go…   If they don’t, then I’d rather not.  I’ll be pissed if the animals look sad.  They belong in the freakin wild!  So we’ll see.  Deciding tomorrow.  Should let Irvine Boy know soon though so he can plan out our day with the animals-that-belong-in-the-freakin-wild.

Okay.. time for bed.  More tomorrow.

The worst part about catching a cold is when I first wake up; everything hurts.  Nose is clogged, gross stuff stuck in my throat.  But I make myself get out of bed anyway.  That’s the only way that nasty feeling will go away a bit, is to get up and move around.  I’d much rather stay home and do nothing today, but I need to get together with a girlfriend to study up on some investment material.

So I haven’t had the energy to go to the gym yesterday, or today for that matter.  Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be feeling better enough to go before work.  I don’t mind resting a couple of days though since I did go everyday last week.

And since I can’t taste most of my food right now, I’m not really enjoying eating too much.  I’m still going to make myself a ham and egg sandwich though cause not eating is just bad.

Okay, gonna head out the door as soon as I’m done.  Probably not going to change out of my pj flannel pants.  Don’t think we’ll be leaving her house anyway and plus I need to be comfortable right now. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend….

We didn’t go out last night.  Irvine Boy came over to my place and I made dinner.  Talked to a girlfriend I haven’t seen in a while and since she asked if I wanted to go out to eat with her, I just invited her over for dinner at place too.  I’m a slow cook, so by the time we ate (either that or I always make so much food), it was already 9:30 p.m.  I made five dishes yesterday.  I tried making this steamed pork thing. It didn’t come out so good given that it was my first time making it.  It looked good, but it tasted awful.  I’m going to try again next week.  Ugh.  I’m never going to be a good cook.

So my friend hung out with me for a bit while Irvine Boy passed out on the sofa.  Didn’t do much except catching up like old girlfriends do when they haven’t seen each other in what feels like a decade.  Friend left around 11:30 p.m. and after that I just kept myself busy cleaning up the kitchen and then watching TV.  Somehow 11:30 turned into 4 a.m.!  Woke Irvine Boy up and went to sleep in the bedroom after that.

Going to hang out with two of my closest girlfriends today.  It’s one of the girl’s birthday.  Nothing crazy either.  Just getting tea, going shopping, eating dinner, and then having chocolate cake!

Breakfast/Lunch = Brunch was a very light Asian breakfast.  Irvine Boy and I had congee and some small dishes to go along with it.  So no crazy calories since I’m saving those calories to be spent on a yummy dinner tonight!  AND the chocolate cake.

More later…

It’s Friday and I haven’t updated all week.  The only thing that’s new is I’m sick.  Throat hurts.  It’s worse in the morning when I first wake up.  Bleh.  Hopefully it goes away soon because I don’t want it to interfere with me working out.  I didn’t go into work today, just didn’t feel up for it.  So I think instead of going to the gym and working out too hard for my cold/flu whatever it is, I’m going to take the doggies to the park and maybe walk a few laps with them.  I think I can do a good 5 mile walk in about 1.5 hours.  That should get my heart rate up just enough to burn some good calories.

My trainer keeps telling me that if I want to build bulk, I need to slow down my cardio to a way lower intensity, up my food intake, and gain a little fat.  BAH!  And I keep asking him can’t I just do both at the same time?!  Lose fat, gain bulk!  And he says yes you can, but really if I’m doing them both at the same time it’s kind of working against each other, AND you don’t want to be doing cardio so hard that you’re dipping into your lean muscle.  Why is everything so scientific?  It’s kind of funny actually.  Anyway, plus I’m eating A LOT.  I somehow feel like I have to keep my cardio up.  But what he’s saying is probably true, so I’m going to start doing my cardio at a lower intensity but just for longer periods of time so I can burn more fat calories?  Good grief.  This is confusing.

Anyway I’m still doing really well with food.  Last week I cooked at home mostly and packed my lunch.  I found it harder to keep track of what I’m eating when I cook because with Chinese food, all these different ingredients go in and the portion sizes aren’t very consistent.  The only thing is really do my best at estimation.  I’ve also tried to use as less oil as possible with my stir fry.  Generally for a large plate of stir fry, I’ll use about 1 tablespoon of oil, then once the food goes in the wok, I add a little bit of hot water to help cook the food.  Cause obviously that 1 tablespoon of oil isn’t going to do much for cooking the food.  Burning the food is more like it.  I’ve gotten quite used to not eating so much oil, though it doesn’t taste as “good” as what I’m used to eating outside.  But it’s much healthier that’s for sure.  And plus a lot of times it’s an acquired tastes.  I love food… so thinking of ways to make everything healthier has actually allowed me to eat MORE.  Can’t complain about that!  Oh, and one other thing.. once people get more educated about what are in the food in restaurants, I think most people wouldn’t want to eat it either.  Like Macaroni Grill….most of their salads are 1000+ calories with 50+ grams of fat.  Ok, forget about just getting fat from eating that, I’d be afraid of getting a heart attack right then and there.  Also their teriyaki salmon with spinach orzo pasta, also 1200 calories with 60 grams of fat.  Most of their creamy dips like the artichoke dip are loaded with fat.  I think once in a while is okay.  Like my weekly splurges.  This weekend I’m going to have my country fried steak and eggs!  But a lot of people eat junk a few times a week.  Bad bad bad.

I’ve been on top of my workout for almost a full month now!  6 days a week every week.  I haven’t lost any crazy weight at all, but my clothes are fitting just a bit better.  They’re really small changes.  Nothing dramatic.  So I’m still just sticking to my routine, and getting out there to do a little something every day.

I skipped breakfast today because I was sleeping all morning from feeling sick.  I got up and heated myself some leftovers of rice and Ma Po Tofu made with ground turkey breast.  I used a little bit of oil and sautéed some scallions, ginger slices, and garlic on medium heat to bring out the flavor.  Then I added the ground turkey breast.  Cooked it till all the meat has turned white.  Added 1 tablespoon of Do Ban Jian.  1 tablespoon of ketchup for color.  Toss a bit.  And then added my cubed soft tofu.  Put the lid on and simmered it on medium heat for a couple of minutes.  Right before turning off the stove, mix some starch in cold water and add it to the tofu to thicken the sauce.  And right before taking the tofu out of the wok, throw in some fresh scallions for added color.            So yummy.  Usually Ma Po Tofu has a lot of grease floating around on the top from the ground pork fat.  But this is practically a clear broth.  The only thing is it probably doesn’t look as tasty as the greasy look though.  I don’t know… depends on how you feel about grease.  Haha.. I actually love greasy, fried, fattening stuff.  I just try not to eat it all the time.

A little info I found on the web today:

Friday's Introduces Portion-Controlled Entrees - Let's welcome six new, affordably priced ($6.99 - $8.99), smaller entrees to the T.G.I. Friday's menu. Four of Friday's classic dishes are also being made available in smaller portions. They may be tinier but they're not necessarily diet-friendly. Watch out for the Half-Rack Baby Back Ribs and the Jack Daniel's Chicken Alfredo. The really exciting news is that two of the offerings, Dragonfire Chicken and Shrimp Key West, are also included in the "Better For You" section, and they each contain 500 calories or less and 10 grams of fat or less per serving.

Ditch These Dips...

Warning: Any food that requires another food as a utensil has the potential to be a diet disaster. Here are the worst ones we've uncovered…

Macaroni Grill Shrimp & Artichoke Dip with Romano Croutons - Layers of assorted baked cheeses encrust the otherwise healthy ingredients: shrimp, artichokes and spinach. Once the plate's loaded up with greasy croutons, this dip tips the scales at 980 calories and 52 grams of fat. Yikes!

Chili's Skillet Queso - This frightening pile of cheesy goo and ground beef contains 670 calories and 53 fat grams…and that's before you dip a single chip in it! When it comes to this skillet…skip it!

Pizza Hut White Icing Dipping Cup - This dessert dip comes with the Hut's cinnamon and sugar dusted breadsticks. But just 2 teeny ounces of the sugary stuff contains 190 calories and 40 grams of sugar! And again, that's WITHOUT the sticks!

Ruby Tuesday Spinach Artichoke Dip - Hmmm…with 332 calories and 20 fat grams, this dip doesn't look nearly as bad as the others. Oh wait, that's for just a quarter of the appetizer! Even with three friends chipping (and dipping) in, this is no way to start a meal.

My weekend was good.  Relaxing.  On Sunday we took the dogs out for a quick walk about 1 mile each way.  We also stopped for coffee before we headed back.  Weather like this is perfect for getting outside.  I can’t stand it when it starts getting too warm.  By then I can’t do anything in the day time… too hot.  Have to wait till the sun sets.  Went to my girl’s dinner Sunday night that I totally forgot about till one of them called me 15 minutes prior to when we were supposed to met.  I still went, I was 30 minutes late, but I still threw on some clothes and practically flew over there.  Later on at night I went back down to Irvine Boy’s place and we just watched a dvd.  Relaxing, like I said.

This morning I got up for my workout.  Got to the gym at 8 a.m. and met up with my trainer.  I had met up with him on Saturday too so I’m still aching and feeling sore.  But we did target some other muscles so I’m just waiting for those to start really hurting on the 3^rd day.  I love feeling sore…not because I like feeling sore, but because I LOVE stretching when I’m sore.  It’s the best.  We went over what I had been eating in the past week and a half and all I’m hearing from him is “more protein, more protein, and more protein.”  Okay okay.. I got it… more protein.  Haha…            I ordered my protein powder already, it just has arrived yet.  Oh, and he said in another few weeks with the weight training we’re doing I have to up my calorie intake.  Exciting.  Isn’t that every girl’s worse nightmare(?), eating more calories?  But it’s okay, I know it’ll be used in the right places.  This is fun.  Anyway, so weights we did mainly lats and triceps, and then we finished with abs.  After weight training I did 93 minutes of light intensity cardio of brisk walking on the treadmill, incline at 3.5, speed 3.8 – 4.0 or so.  So today was a good day.  I prefer getting my workouts out of way first thing in the morning.  A lot of times by the time I’m done with work, I just don’t have it in me to really push myself through a whole workout routine.

This morning I had the same… egg whites, waffles, and center cut bacon, with a big glass of nonfat milk.  After my workout I didn’t have enough time to find something to eat so I ate a protein bar with 290 calories and 20 grams of protein.  Then for lunch I brought some cooked egg plants and white rice.  Not sure what my snack are going to be for the day.  I think I still have 1 bag of 100 cal popcorn in my desk something.  I need to start bringing in healthier snacks, like tuna and pita bread or something.  I just haven’t had time to make it and put it all together.  I think after work I’m going to go straight home and whip up some stuff for this week.  I did all the workout I needed to do today… so don’t need to hit the gym again till tomorrow morning.

Taking lunch break now…

I love this nice chilly weather.  But
I feel like I’m coming down with something. 
Irvine Boy is a little sick so maybe I caught it from him.  We’re about a mile away from the supermarket,
so I was thinking we can walk the dogs down there to get me some airborne or
something.  I definitely don’t want to be
sick.  It’s no fun.

Today is my day off from workout so I’m just relaxing.  We’re probably going to go eat and then come
back and watch some dvds I rented last night. 
I did go to the gym yesterday to do my workout.  About 50 minutes of weights and 50 minutes of
the treadmill.  My body is aching
today.  But that’s good and I kinda like
it… means I made my workout time worthwhile. 
Plus I’m addicted to the feeling of stretching everything out when I
feel this sore.

We didn’t do anything crazy for St. Patrick’s day.  Watched 300 with a few friends at the Irvine
Spectrum and then afterwards went to the Yardhouse for a couple drinks.  Decided to have my splurge for the week
there, so I ordered their beer battered fish and chips…   yum yum yum! 
I love fried food.  So nothing
crazy last night.. after that we just came back home and passed out.

Heading out to lunch now…and maybe that walk.  More later…

Heading over to the gym now.  Going straight to pick up Irvine Boy afterwards.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Irvine Boy just called!  He landed in Atlanta and has a short layover.  So I’ll be seeing him soon tonight.  Finally.  Seems like we’ve been apart for most of this new year already.  I was gone to Taiwan in February and then as soon as I got back he took off for Spain.  So it’ll be nice to get to hang out again.

Just had a bowl of Kashi honey almond flax cereal with nonfat milk for a snack.  I could live on cereal ya know.  Well, I guess cause cereal is considered a breakfast food and I could eat breakfast throughout the day.

Not much going on here at work today, except I’m feeling quite lazy.  I’m so ready for the weekend.  I’m just waiting to get off work and I’m going to hit the gym for about an hour and a half on the treadmill.  I’m tired of listening to my ipod for now so I’m back to my dvd player.  Rented some new movies from Hollywood Video, so I’ll be watching that while I do my jog.

Kinda feel like going out for a drink tonight.  Or maybe I just kinda feel like drinking tonight.  Don’t necessarily have to go out.  I guess I could pick up a bottle of scotch and drink that at home.  I don’t know… we’ll see.  That means I’ll have to go to Costco to pick that up.  Feeling lazy; don’t feel like fighting the Friday afternoon crowd there.  I’ll decide later after I figure out how bad I want a drink.

You know…. I think it’s almost TTOTM again, cause I’m feeling REALLY REALY snacky in the last 2 days.  And I know I normally eat enough so it’s not because I’m starving or anything.  I normally feel like crap during TTOTM, but I read many times that working out helps with all the bloating and stuff.  So this month I’m going to really stick with my routine and see if it’s true or not.  TMI again?  hahaha..

Okay, wawa out.

This is random, just a picture of my typical breakfast...

Eggs, center cut bacon, and waffle

I think the week goes by faster when I’m working out every day too.  Cause it seems like I JUST finished working out today and it’s tomorrow and time to go to the gym again.  Which is good I suppose… makes the whole week go by faster.

I ended up not going to the gym last night because by the time I was done with my last client, it was already 12 a.m.  I just didn’t any energy left to go.  So I just went home, washed up and went to bed.  SO tired.  This week  I have today and Saturday left to go.  I’ll still hit my goal of 3000 cals this week since I do a little bit more each time.  But I won’t hit my 6 days goal.  Bleh.

By the end of this week, I would have worked out for a full 3 weeks now.  I think I may have lost about 2 pounds, and though that’s not a lot….. but I think I see more results in how I fit my clothes.  So a lot of times I think the results really don’t just register on the scale.  Which is great cause then that just means I’m gaining some lean muscle mass.  Yay!!!

Going to try and still stay on track with eating today.  I’ll probably do that splurge for one of my weekend dinners.  For breakfast today it was 5 scrambled egg whites, 1 egg with sugar free maple syrup, and a cup of coffee.  Seriously yum!  I need to restock on snacks this weekend.  I’m completely out which isn’t good because I’m such a snacker during the day.  I’m going to get some more 100 cal popcorn, more 0% fage, and some better-for-you-brownies I keep hearing about.  I’m just not too sure where to find them yet.  I’ll post it up once I find out.

Irvine Boy comes back tonight.  I’ll be picking him up at LAX.  So today is going to be a packed day.  I want to go to the gym right after I get off of work too.

Alrighty.. more later.