Skipped Supper

I didn't exactly intend to skip dinner last night, it just kinda happened.  Normally I eat dinner within an hour or so after I get off of work but last night I had kind of an interesting day at work that I couldn't get out of my head so I kinda just lazed around for a couple of hours after work musing on it.  Finally I suggested to Snackers that we go out to eat because we'd forgotten to take anything out of the freezer for supper and all we had available was junk food.  He agreed but also wanted to take the dogs to the dog park so we took them with us with the intent of picking something up to eat on the way home.

Well we spent about an hour and a half at the dog park and by then it was almost 9 o'clock.  I hate eating that late so we just came home and after a long look in both the fridge and pantry I just couldn't wrap my head around anything that looked good so I gave up and went to bed instead.  Woops?  Bah, I'm sure skipping supper every once in a while can't hurt too bad.





Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 fish burrito
3 chicken tostadas
1 glass of red wine
----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1321




Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
1.5 - 2 hours of rearranging furniture, cleaning, and moving heavy objects around.

The Grocery Store Conspiracy

These 2 steaks were originally 1 giant steak

I have heard a theory that the reason "good" foods like unprocessed meats, fruits, and vegetables are so much more expensive than "bad" foods like boxed meals and ramen noodles is because grocery stores benefit from a "fat America".  The theory posits that if people are subliminally encouraged to eat crap in the name of financial hardship they will eventually have to (or choose to) spend money on other products such as diet pills, exercise equipment, pharmaceuticals, vitamins, etc ... most of which can also be purchased from your average, every day grocery store down the street.

I have always dismissed this theory on the basis that it seemed like too much of a "long shot" for the grocery stores.  With some experience in balancing a pricing matrix of my own, both at work and with my books, I know that it's often beneficial to do a BOGO (buy-one, get-one) deal, and other similar deals, if the retail value of one object is more than double the wholesale cost of both objects together.  Then you think you're getting a deal but the store is still, in fact, making a profit and selling more product than they might otherwise.  I also know from multiple previous experiences in retail that many retailers mark their products up by at least 2.5 times what they pay for it.  Example: A necklace that I buy wholesale for $3 I can sell at retail for $7.50 or more (I don't have this luxury with my books because that would price them over $25 a pop and no one would pay that much for them).  So in order for grocery stores to sell "bad" food so cheap they have to still be making money off of it or it wouldn't be worth it for them in the hope that you'll spend more on pharmaceuticals than they've lost on the bad food you might have purchased over the last 10 years or so.  Sure, maybe they're overpricing their meat and produce but it does seem like those things would cost more to provide in stores than a box of Roni right?  I mean produce and meat has to be refrigerated, it has a shorter shelf life which means profit loss on spoiled food, a problem you don't have with boxed noodles and canned ravioli.

But then we went to our local ceviche market for, what else, ceviche and decided that we should check out the other items on our shopping list while we were there to see if we could save some money.  First of all, the ceviche market is owned, operated, and caters to Mexican Americans and the latino community in general so even though it's a big, clean, beautiful grocery store many of the items on the shelves are things I've never seen before.  I don't mind that though, I love browsing ethnic grocery stores and I remember how much Snackers and I loved the one that we found in Korea town.  But explain to me how WalMart, Smith's, Albertson's, and Fresh & Easy all sell our favorite steaks for around $7 per lb but this latino grocery store can sell it for $3?  And, this is the real kicker, it looks soooo much better at the latino store!  In WalMart, especially, you have to be really picky when picking out fresh meat because a lot of their meats are left out long enough that they start to turn brown inside their packaging and yet the entire meat counter at the latino market was a beautiful bright red color and looked as though it had been cut fresh off the cow just hours before.  And that's not the only thing, the produce section at the latino market is bigger, fresher, more affordable, and a much much larger selection.  Milk, dairy, and bread products, however, were at least $1 more than what we get them for in our usual haunts.  One thing to be learned is that if you can do it without spending more on gas driving from place to place than what you save on groceries, it can be really beneficial to shop your list from multiple stores.  It might seem like $1 here and $2 there but we bought 5 LBS of lovely red steak for $15 and in the past we've paid $14 for 2 lbs of the exact same cut at other stores.  Food for thought ... literally.








Food:
130 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 fruit bar
1 fish burrito
1 weight watchers ice cream
--------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1051






Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Playing @ the dog park: 1 hr

The Weekend

A lot happened this weekend.  I wrote a nice long post up for Friday then forgot to log back in and post it (I didn't even touch a computer all weekend which, for me, is both rare and a very good thing).  Friday's post was all about chasing this little Rottie around who had a broken frisby stuck around her neck at the dog park on Thursday (which I eventually managed to rescue her from after tiring her out) but I think a weekend summary might be more interesting.

Friday's intake came in 1272 and activity included 30 minutes of yoga and an 1.5 hours browsing stores like Pier One and Michael's for unity bottles for the sand ceremony we'll be having at our wedding.

Saturday's intake was 1239 and activity included 2 more hours of browsing stores like Joannes and Hobby Lobby for bottles as well as cords for the handfasting, and grocery shopping.  We took a mid-afternoon nap for about 2 hours (ooooh it was so nice, it's been such a long time since we snuggled up together and took a nap at the same time), did laundry and otherwise prepped for Sunday.

Sunday's intake was 1386 and we were up bright and early to get dressed and head out for a special event.  We had planned on grabbing 6" subs at Subway but it wasn't open yet so we were forced to settle for a breakfast burrito from Carl's Jr. because we were running short on time and I knew we were going to need some kind of breakfast before we got to where we were going.  Sign-in for the event was at 8 a.m. but the event itself didn't start until 10:30 so once I got us signed in we had 2.5 hours to kill walking around looking at booths, went across the street for coffee, and walked 1/3 of the event to visit our friends that were setting up their entertainment at the second stage.

Crossing the finish line!

The big event you ask?  A 5k walk for AIDS.  It was a charity walk so it was free to register but the idea is that you register and then raise money for the cause.  Unfortunately we didn't find out about it until Friday night so we didn't have time to raise funds but we made some donations of our own and one of the gals at the event told me that Walgreens donated $5 for every registered "walker" at the event, so that's cool!  Because it was a charity walk there were no numbers to pin on our shirts or "winners" etc. but I did the walk in 40 minutes, passed close to 50 people and counted 12 people between me and the golf-cart that was leading the procession when we came down the home-stretch.  It felt awesome and was a whole lot of motivational fun!

Snackers registered to walk with me but when we first got there he ended up walking all over the place because our friend's kid was there with his band to provide entertainment for the walkers as they passed one of the way-stations that were set up here and there throughout the route.  So Snackers went to find them while I signed us in, he got lost and did half of the 5k trying to find the right spot, then headed back to the stage to see me, then went back to where his friends were at etc. and by the time it was time for the actual walk he was pooped and bowed out.  Oh well, I had fun and got some SERIOUS sun.  Damn ... I'm going to have to figure out how to avoid tan-lines between now and the wedding without actually avoiding the sun.  I love the sun too much to avoid it.



Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 FiberOne bar
1 Healthy Choice lunch
1/4 cup mixed nuts
10 oz grilled steak
12 asparagus spears
----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1306




Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes

Schedule

Here's the very rough schedule that I've been living since school ended - occasionally I've traded in the 1hr of exercise in the evening for either an additional hour of writing or an additional hour of relaxation with Snackers.  My schedule when I was in school was basically the same except that my evening hours often included a lot more than 3 hours of study.  I would typically exercise as soon as I got off work at 4, then eat dinner at 5,and then sometimes I'd only have to study for 2-3 hours and could spend the evening relaxing with Snackers or writing and sometimes I'd study all the way from 6 p.m. until bed time ... which usually led to me laying in bed for an hour or so trying to work through some problematic code in my head and not being able to fall asleep until well after midnight.


Monday - Friday:
A.M.
6:30 - Wake up, pour coffee/water, let the dogs out, boot computer, go potty, get dressed, log calories, blog.
7:00 - Work
9:00 - 10 minute break (let dogs out, refill water, grab a granola bar, feed dogs, go potty)
11:00 - 10 minute break (same as above but feed cats instead of dogs)

P.M.
1:00 - Lunch break (refill water, eat, do yoga)
2:00 - Back to work
4:00 -Cook/eat dinner, clean up
5:00 - Study PHP (3hrs)

8:00 - Write (1hr)
9:00 - Exercise (1hr)
10:00 - Write (1hr)
11:00 - Relax/spend time w/Snackers, shower (30min - 1hr)
11:30/12:00 ish - Go to bed


Saturday - Sunday:
These are the days when Snackers and I usually spend a lot of time together, I get to sleep in if I can, we take care of grocery shopping, chores around the house, etc.  I almost always am up doing something whether it's something fun with Snackers, running errands, or taking a leisurely evening walk but he considers weekends "our time" because my week days or so full (actually I think he's starting to resent the fact that I am so busy all of the time) so I let these days flex around him.




Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1/4 cup raw nuts
1 healthy choice lunch
10 baby dill pickles
2 tbsps natural peanut butter
1 serving seafood and veg stir fry
---------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1289




Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
On my feet @ dog park playing, chasing dogs, and otherwise doing anything BUT sitting down: 2 hrs

Uninspired

I'm just not feeling in a writing mood this morning.  Sorry.




Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 fruit bar
1 cup leftover soup
1 serving chicken and mushrooms
1/2 serving chow mein
1 serving beef broccoli
2 spring rolls
1/2 cup mixed nuts
------------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1444





Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes

Self-Destruction

How does one get through a period of low motivation and self-control ... this is the thought that has been on my mind for months.  Every day I still count but the drive that I had when I started this journey just isn't there.  Sure, I'll find it a little bit here and there for a moment or two.  I'll give myself these grand pep-talks in my head about how I can do it I just need to DO it.  I'll even force myself to walk the right path for a day or two but it just isn't the same.  When I started this blog I woke up every morning eager to write my next post, every Monday morning eager to weigh-in, every 14th of the month eager for pictures.  Now I can barely remind myself to do these things and they feel like a chore.  I exercised after work and during lunch breaks with certainty and nothing was going to stop me.  I remember putting my shoes on, waving to Snackers and heading outside with exuberance and any protests from him fell on determinedly deaf ears.  I was going to do it and nothing was going to stop me.

I have more reasons to be motivated now than ever.  I've made so much progress.  I'm getting married in less than a year.  I'm graduating in two months.  I have a big doggy that looooves to go for walks.  I have a treadmill.  I have literally everything that I need or could ever want for success except the most important thing ... motivation.  I've been trying to find it now for the last 8 months and I just don't know how.  Like I said, I've found snippets of it here and there, brief moments of excitement that wear off quickly and are gone by the next day.  I re-watched 266's 1-year Anniversary video a dozen times trying to get that "I can do it" attitude from it that it gave me the first time but it's just not there.  It's all in my head, I know that, but I can't figure out how to overcome it.  I can force myself to get up and do things, most of the time, but I can't seem to force myself to like it the way that I used to.  I'm past being frustrated with myself now and I'm in a place where I just don't give a damn anymore.  It sucks - and it's going to drag me right down the path of failure if I don't figure out a way to shake it.





Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 fruit bar
1 fish burrito
1/2 leftover veggie calzone
1 cup fat free frozen yogurt
-----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1441





Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: (w/Snackers and dogs) 1 hr

The Weekend

Well we had a very productive weekend.  We spent Friday night at the dog park, mostly, and then watched Marmaduke together before bed.  I knew I wasn't going to like that movie but Snackers is a sucker for animals so we grabbed it out of a $5 bargain bin at WalMart on a whim.  Ten minutes into it even he was making fun of how cheesy it was but we finished watching it anyway and I'm sure we'll pass it on to one of our nieces or nephews.  Saturday morning I had an appointment to get my measurements taken for the dress, from there we ran some errands and I got a call reminding me that we'd scheduled an appointment to look at some wedding locations on Sunday.  In the evening Snackers watched some baseball and I worked on The Prototypes (the sequel to The Citizens), then we put in The Butterfly Effect and watched that.

Sunday we woke up bright and early and headed to our first of three appointments to check out six different wedding venues.  Lots and lots of walking!  All six locations were way far on the northwest side of the valley though!  They were beautiful and the pricing was reasonable on a couple of them but they were just so damn far away!!!  We hit the dog park again but Vladdy got to playing with a little Akita puppy and she got rolled and hurt her front leg so we left after making sure with her owner that she was going to be ok and there were no hard feelings ... after all it was an accident during play, not like he did it on purpose.  It reminded me of when Vladdy was just a clumsy little pup and he used to get rolled and hurt a lot ... now he's on the opposite side of the fence.

We dropped the dogs off and headed out to pimp out my books.  I made a 5 chapter sample of The Citizens that includes ordering information in the back so we handed out a few of those at book stores, dropped off a full copy of The Citizens for the employees at Barnes & Noble to read (if they read it and like it then they can recommend it right?), and I filled out a job application.  The manager remembered me so when I asked her about a job ap she asked me to make sure that I put something on the ap about being the author of my two books so that it would stand out to her when she reviews the applications later (they won't be hiring till mid May).  From there we went to Big Lots because we were out of EVOO and we've found that we can get much bigger bottles at Big Lots and Ross than we can get at grocery stores for about half-the-price.  We browsed around for fun while we were there, Big Lots is kind of a fun store because they always have unique stuff to look at.  Then we headed home and played with the dogs in the back yard, scrubbed down and refilled Vladdy's pool, did some laundry, and went to bed.  Busy, busy weekend.

OH p.s. I got my final grade for my final class and it's an A so my graduating GPA will be 3.98.  YAY!





Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 fruit crisp
1 healthy choice lunch
1/2 veggie calzone
16 oz pomegranate green tea
1 skinny cow ice cream
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1337




Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Walking: 1.5 miles (around the neighborhood w/Snackers)
Sprints: 2 @ 1 min. each
-------------------------------
Fitocracy Points: 153

Available By Order

Today I am going with a shameless plug for The Citizens, my latest book, because it is now finally available by order through Barnes & Noble and other fine retailers.

Imagine a town where you can stay out as late as you want, wake up when it suits you, you never have to go to work, and everything is free for the taking. Sounds perfect right? But what if you can't remember where you are or how you got there? What if you can't ever leave? And what if the only other people around are hostages, just like you? Would you still want to stay?

Jasmine Marshall certainly didn't think so until she met Justin Beck; a dashing active-duty member of the United States Army and fellow hostage. With him around life in Kolob might not be so bad after all...or so she thought. There are vampires and psychics at the breakfast table! Disturbing acts of torture and senseless violence are commonplace. Biochemical warfare is a very real threat, and the town's mayor is an elusive mad-scientist obsessed with his own theories about December 21, 2012!

In a place where one has everything to gain and nothing to lose, one thing reigns true: nothing in Kolob is ever as it seems.

Order through your local store: ISBN: 9781470101589

Or Online 

Food:

130 oz of water

2 cups of coffee w/creamer

1 granola bar

1 bowl leftover soup
1 turkey and avocado sandwich
--------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1313



Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Snackers and I picked up a few $5 movies from the bargain bins at WalMart and had movie night.

Job Shopping

Well, school is done, my final grade should be revealed for my last class any day and it's time for me to go shopping for a second job.  I'm thinking part-time, obviously, nights and weekends.  Preferably nothing in the food industry because I tried that once at Chili's and had a very bad experience that made me not want to eat at another Chili's restaurant ever again.  I'd like to get into something physical like stocking shelves or something though and I was very happy working at the liquor store before I got my job in computers.  Fortunately all of the liquor stores here are 24 hour so a nights and weekends job shouldn't be too hard to get - if not there are always the casinos as well.

I had hoped to take one or two weeks between school and job shopping to just kind of wind down but I'm already starting to feel restless and guilty like I could/should be doing more.  See, I know that I do this to myself.  My parents are the exact same way, especially my mom.  Always have to be doing something, running running running, inventing things to do if we have to and then we wonder why we're always so stressed out with so much on our plates.




Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 healthy choice lunch
3 ceviche tostadas
----------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 824 (not intentional, I just wasn't very hungry yesterday)




Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Playing w/Vladdy at the dog park: 1 hr

Catching Up ... Again

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I spent two hours on Sunday working in the front yard cutting down a shrub, raking leaves and debri, moving the landscaping rock around etc.  Well I don't normally have problems with allergies but I think, with enough exposure, anyone can have a flare up now and then and that's what happened to me Sunday night.  I pretty much knew it was coming too because the shrub that I cut down was throwing off a TON of pollen, as was the one next to it.  The old decaying leaves and trash under the shrub disintegrated into a fine crunchy compost when I started raking it out which made it really hard to pick up and put in the trash cans, and by the time I was finished I could feel the grit sticking to my eyelashes.

I slept for maybe 30 minutes all total Sunday night, something Snackers can attest to since, unfortunately my sneezing and sniffing kept him awake for the first part of the night and then when I went into the guest room so that I wouldn't disturb him he kept getting up in the middle of the night to come in and check on me.  Poor dude.  I had an old box of benadryl that's been in the cupboard for who knows how long so I took one of those but it was just pointless.  My eyes were burning, my nose wouldn't stop running no matter how much I blew it, and my voice was just non-existent for several hours.

Needless to say that by the time 6 a.m. rolled around and I rolled out of bed (45 minutes before the alarm even went off) because I realized it was pointless to continue trying, I was exhausted yesterday!  I dragged myself through work and afterward I shoveled up a bucket of dirt and rocks out of the back yard for a friend.  We have an excess of both in our yard that, someday when we finally pay someone to level it out, will probably cost us about $2,000 to get it hauled away so if I can get rid of it one 5-gallon bucket at a time, even better!  Snackers had his follow up doc's appointment yesterday to get his stitches taken out but he is going to need physical therapy and at least another month to heal ... so imagine my reaction when I saw him walking around the back yard with a shovel in his good hand.

Me: "What are you doing?"
Him: "I'm gonna get some rock for *insert friend's name*"
Me: "You're going to shovel rock?"
Him: "Yeah."
Me: "Give me the shovel."

On the one hand, he's such a SCORPIO, and I am too so I get it.  We HATE being down against our will.  We hate being out of commission or feeling like we're "broken".  I get it, I am the exact same way.  BUT, I also know that we are probably the most likely sign of the zodiac to re-injure or make-worse a wound or illness because you can't keep us down without tying us up.  My mom went through HELL with me when I would get sick or hurt as a kid and she was a nurse for crying out loud!  Fortunately, he thinks it's kinda sexy when I go all strong woman and work hard at something (which is great because too many men would get all insecure and pissy about it instead) but he brought me water and then stared at my ass while I worked.  Fine with me.  I call that a win-win. lol


After the dirt was loaded into the car I ate dinner and crashed for the rest of the night.  I probably slept for something like 10 hours which, for me, is a lot in one night but I slept deep and it felt really good.






Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
1 can hearts of palm
1 healthy choice lunch
1 bowl taco soup
1 weight watchers ice cream bar
---------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1467




Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Made dinner, cleaned the kitchen, did laundry and then crashed.

A Triumph & A Shrubbery!

Dhampiri on the shelf @ B&N

Yes, Monty Python fans, the homage was intentional.  Saturday night Snackers and I found ourselves wandering the local Barnes & Noble looking for something to do, yet again, and we came across something interesting.  A few weeks ago he and I were brain storming about how we could get the word out more on my books so that people would order them from Barnes & Noble and, thus, B&N would start putting them on the shelves.  One idea that we came up with is to make a really nice little full-color flyer, put it in a plastic counter stand and take it to B&N to put on their counter that shows the cover of a book, talks a bit about it, and says "Order today from your local Barnes & Noble!" or something along those lines.  Well, since we were already there I decided to ask them if they'd even put it on their counter before I spent the money getting one made.

She said that they absolutely would but wanted to check to make sure it was available by order first.  Well I knew that it was but I let her check anyway just for kicks and ... lo and behold, she said "We have it in stock" !!!!  HUH?! On March 3rd I could see through my printer that a book store had ordered 2 copies but I couldn't see who the book store was or where they were located and since the manager at B&N told me outright that the book would have to sell a certain number of copies before she'd put it on her shelves, that was the last place that I would have expected to find it so soon but there they were!  Two copies ON THE SHELF AT BARNES AND NOBLE!!!  So then she said, "If you want to sign them I'll move them to a feature easel on the counter" ... SOMEONE GET ME A PEN QUICK! lol

Dhampiri featured on the counter!

So I signed both copies and they put stickers on them that say "Autographed" and placed them front-and-center on the information counter! Squeeeeeee!

Oh yes, and the shrubbery.  Yesterday I went out to trim the shrubs in the front yard and realized that two of them are out of control - I've known that they were since I bought the house but I trimmed them last year and they're SO HUGE, that the outside is bushy and leafy but the center is dead so when I tried to trim them down I ended up with a half-dead looking shrub.  I had intended to cut them down to stumps last fall but didn't get it done before it got too cold so yesterday I sucked it up and handled it.  I only did one of the two because I didn't want my yard to be completely barren but I used manual hedge clippers to hack down everything that I could cut with my own strength, then used an electric hedge cutter to take down the larger stems and branches.  Then I raked out 10 years worth of dead decaying leaves and trash that has been stuck way down in where no one could ever get to it before, filling two trash cans with it all, pulled weeds, and watered the trees.  In addition to that, my front yard is on a slope and the gravel has all pooled at the bottom of the slope leaving the top bald in some areas so I raked the rocks back up the hill to cover up the bald spots and get them off the sidewalk.  AND, I found a $20 bill in the decaying trash and leaves that was under the shrub as I was raking it all out.  Almost two full hours of solid manual labor but I got a tan and ... BONUS!  My arms and back are KILLING ME today but it was a very nice workout!




Food:
130 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
2 mini veg pizzas
1 fish burrito
1 weight watchers ice cream
------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 1287




Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Shoveled a bucket of rocks and dirt out of the back yard, carried it to the car and hoisted it into the back for Snackers.