P90 Wrap Up

Well I did it! I finished Power 90. 90 days and about 78 workouts later, how did it all turn out? I lost 3 pounds! Ha ha! I know, three teeny tiny measly pounds. I was only down two pounds four days ago so I really made up ground in the last couple days. I told my friend Jenn about my two pound loss the other day and she laughed at me. It's okay, the intent wasn't malicious or anything. I reeeeally don't care that I only lost three pounds. After all, at Christmas time I was up three over my starting weight when I was confused into thinking the true meaning of Christmas had something to do with caramel filled chocolate kisses. So, in a way I'm down six and I now have the muscle mass of a 35 year old. Nothing to scoff at there. So I feel like I'm in much better shape and I've stoked the furnace. Last night I was even able to demonstrate some pretty awesome choreography to a High School Musical 3 song ("The Boys are Back" or something like that) which ended with rolling under a bed and jumping out the other side. Okay, I didn't actually do the rolling. Had Noah do it for me.

Remember the vegetarian thing? Well I guess we made it through that. We did cheat a few times. Have you ever tried to eat vegetarian at Applebee's? No easy task there. I really didn't discover many new exciting recipes. Mostly, I just modified dishes I already made. So I still need to work on my quest to eat less processed food. My favorite substitute was throwing in Morningstar Farms Crumbles in everything that would have normally required chicken or hamburger. The hamburger subbing part was easy since we don't really eat that anyway. So it was crumbles in tacos, crumbles in lasagna, crumbles in crazy casserole (Brent's family's recipe, which is basically taco salad with Doritos). Throwing cans of beans in various dishes worked great as well. Remember, fiber is our friend. One thing that was good was baked sweet potato fries. Just slice up some sweet potatoes, coat in a little canola oil and salt and bake for about 30 minutes. So, I'd say we are healthier for it. After about four weeks I stopped jonesing for ice cream- it was a trying time for the family. ;) We didn't give up treats altogether (which may explain the three pound loss in 90 days). Moderation baby, that's the key! I figure if you lose the weight very very slowly, you'll keep it off easier anyway. Eventually, you have to go off a diet so the closer it mirrors regular life (meaning eating healthy in general with treats every now and then) the easier it is to maintain. I'm some sort of guru now, I tell ya. So I think we'll still eat vegetarian at least half the time. It was cheaper too I noticed. Not something to ignore in these times of economic uncertainty.

Here's one more recipe. If you like chili and enchiladas you'll like this:

Vegetarian Enchilada Bake

About 15 corn tortillas
4 cans vegetarian chili (Nalley's works well)
1 medium can enchilada sauce
1 can sliced olives
about 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese

Tear up tortillas. Spray non stick spray on bottom of 9x13 baking dish. Cover bottom of dish with 1/3 of tortillas. Spread 2 cans of chili over tortillas. Spread about 1/3 of enchilada sauce over chili. Repeat layers of 1/3 tortillas, chili and enchilada sauce. Spread the last third of the tortillas, followed by more enchilada sauce. Top with cheese and olives. Bake in 375 preheated oven for about 35 minutes. Top with lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, etc. Serve with fruit or whatever. Makes enough for two nights for a family of 5. Actually tastes better warmed up on second night.

We're Going Veg!

So I've mentioned to some of you out there that Brent and I are doing this DVD exercise program called Power 90. It's 90 days and we're on day 46. Halfway through, woo hoo! So we did the 1-2 workouts for the first half and now we're moving on to the 3-4 for the second half. They are slightly harder and longer. The first half was during the holidays, of course. We didn't want to worry about the diet during the holidays so now that we're a little in shape and have no excuse to eat chocolate anymore, we're working on the diet. We decided to try out being vegetarians for the last 45 days. Sometimes I think I need to make a major change like that to make it more interesting and easy. Gets the focus off the ice cream (no ice cream is allowed) and onto the veggie diet. I've always wanted to try it out anyway. No, we're not going vegan. We'll still be eating eggs and a little cheese and drinking milk. That makes it a whole lot less complicated.

Thought I'd share our first triumphal vegetarian dinner recipe with you~

Veggie Pasta Salad

1 box Barilla Plus Rotini Pasta, boiled and rinsed (has extra protein and the omega 3s)
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 can whole olives, drained
baby carrots, sliced into quarters and slightly steamed
brocolli, cut up and slightly steamed
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
grape tomatoes, whole or cut in half if you prefer
fresh spinach, torn
italian salad dressing to taste (I used the Good Seasons mix kind)

Toss all ingredients together, sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top, stir.
Refridgerate a few hours.
Makes enough for two nights for a family of five.
Serve with rolls or fruit or whatever.

Good and Pretty!

Update: I'd stir the spinach in right before serving next time, gets really soggy.

Wrapping Up 2008 With A Big Red Bow On Top- Wait, let's make that A Big Blue Bow On Top

It's over. 2008 is gone just about. This may have been the quickest year of my life. So it's time to review some things of note. The problem with blogging is that inspiration usually comes while washing my hair in the shower and is forgotten by the time I'm done. Well I'm still the same old me, yes I did wonder if it was too lewd to mention the shower in my blog. I am thrilled to look out the window and see snow covering the fence and roofs and cars. The extra long Fall was just not right in my opinion. Yeah, it made biking and walking to school a snap but cold and snow are what we are supposed to have and I don't believe in messing with mother nature. What has been accomplished this year? I think it's normal in this culture to try to have a bunch of huge accomplishments to put up on some sort of imaginary scoreboard that will launch you ever closer to your eternal reward or just make you feel good about yourself and all you've done. I can never seem to find many of those things to tack onto the scoreboard. Life's usually a series of small events, some I feel good about, some that wasted too many hours of my time, most that were just living the daily functions of life and taking care of this thing called family. I dare say this is how life is for most of us.

I did finally get recycling down this year. We don't have those convenient blue or green recycling cans that many communities have. But I discovered about a year ago this thing out here called the Blue Bag Recycling Program. If you live out this way I highly recommend you try it out if you haven't yet. You just get those blue recycling trash bags that you can get at the grocery store and separate your recyclables into the bags and put it all in your regular garbage can and they separate it all at the dump. Brent's skeptical that they actually do it but there was a picture on the internet with a big pile of the blue bags that had been removed at the dump. I didn't recycle any cans this year (baby steps) so maybe I'll add those in next year. You have to rinse things out so that's why I've resisted so far.

I started a blog (pretty obvious one here). I found out that I kind of like to write and that occasionally I don't completely suck at it. It's a little surprising that I've stuck with something for so many months. I'm hoping in the coming year that I can be a little more open in my blogging. Dare to say more of what I want to say. It's always been my desire to make this a forum for my thoughts and hear others thoughts too, along with the pictures and the happenings in our lives. I censored myself more than I really wanted to when it came to politics and other issues.

Speaking of politics... We elected Barack Obama as our next president! I still can't believe that in a month we will have a President Obama. I learned a lot from this election about just how difficult it can be for individuals to come together on varying political views. I think I may have even harmed a friendship or two as a result of the election. Not because I wouldn't shut up about my views or I was trying to change another persons mind. More I think because they didn't agree with my guy and when he won (oh the nerve of it all, allowing the other team to win for a change!) they were upset and blamed me in a way for bringing this terrible thing to pass. That part makes me sad. Hopefully time will heal wounds. Let me just say how grateful I am for friends who tolerate me and my contrary political views. :) Let me explain just a little about what Obama's win means to me and others. It's like this time years ago before Brent and I were married and we used to go running together after work in the mornings. We were running and talking at the same time about some issues involving our future together. I know, we should have just stuck with the running. Well the conversation didn't go well and we were having a disagreement about something important to me. Honestly, I can't remember all the details but I was upset and started crying. Crying and running do not go together because the crying makes you unable to breath. So I started gasping for air. I was hyperventilating and could have used a paper bag to breath into at that point. So I stopped running, stopped crying, and took some slow deep breaths and then I was able to breath again. It felt unbelievable to be able to breath normally again. That's how it feels. We've had an administration running our country that has basically told those who don't agree with their policies to sit down and shut up, we know what's best, you don't and we're not going to listen to you. I can breath again. I can have an opinion contrary to my government's once again and not be accused of being unpatriotic. Not be thought of as a bad American. I've always believed that when you disagree with your country's leaders it is your right and even responsibility to stand up and say something. To protest peacefully. That is what I believe our founding fathers intended. We don't need to rehash the reasons I disagree. The war, the Patriot Act, Guantanamo, etc., etc., etc. Those things have been debated ad nauseum. It doesn't mean I don't have great respect for our troops because I surely do. After all, I'm too much of a chicken to do what they do. They and their families sacrifice in the most amazing of ways. But I want to see change. I believe there is more than one way of doing things and if you're hitting your head against a wall hoping it will stop the pain and it's not working, then maybe you should stop hitting your head against the wall and take a new approach.

Another development late in this year is that I think I've got this exercise thing down again. I'm on day 33 of a 90 day workout program, working out six days a week. Finally, I'm remembering again how much I love working out!

Those are just a few notable things that I wanted to mention as this year nears it's end. What about next year? I have this weird, no reason behind it at all, belief that odd years are lucky for me so it could be a great year!

Is It Time To Rebuild?

So I'm out of shape. Not only am I out of shape, I'm a broken down shadow of my former self. Back in, when was it? 2004? Back in 2004 I was in optimal condition. Well sort of anyway. I weighed 20+++ pounds less than I do now. + equaling + or - 5 lbs. Don't worry, this isn't turning into a story problem. Or is it? It is a problem. Back when I did weigh 20+++ pounds less, I was in good shape. I had muscles, well muscles as far as I'm capable of building muscles. But I was hungry. Soooo hungry. And I hate being hungry. Not only for the obvious reasons but because it makes me loopy and unable to safely drive or operate heavy equipment, if I were to operate heavy equipment. So I slowly, steadily put back on most of the weight I lost when I decided it was time to lose that baby weight after Noah. Which doesn't count the 30lbs of weight you lose just by thinking about losing weight after having a baby. And now I'm out of shape. A broken woman.
I started exercising. Low impact stuff. Enjoyed the afternoon walking in the beautiful autumn weather. I feel like I could go on doing that forever, it's so beautiful with everything all awash in an orangy fall glow. But soon the winter gray will be here and that doesn't inspire. Exercise+Cold=Bad. Additionally, doing the walking and low impact, wimpy, sort of strenth training has apparently brought toxic poison to the surface with no apparent exit strategy in the form of aches and strangely, itchiness too. So what's a girl to do? Can you rebuild your broken down, self abused body to it's former glory? (Using that term very loosely.) Anyone? Bob? Jillian....? So that's the quest. The goal. To rebuild. Start from scratch. Resurface better than before. But without being hungry. Remember? Hungry is bad. I read this book a couple of years ago when I was still in my obsessed with health and nutrition books phase called the Perricone Diet. It explained how to do such a thing with certain exercises and specific healthy food like almonds, fish, berries, organic milk, etc. And of course there was a whole series of vitamins to go along with the diet that were very specific to it. Coincidentally Dr. Perricone was willing to sell these to you for a nominal fee. But the price was completely worth it and justified you know. ;) So should I go on a diet of nothing but say salmon, blueberries and flaxseed? Sounds like something a grizzly bear might enjoy. But I am not a grizzly bear. Bears are scary. So, balance. Is balance the key? Could be....