Mr. Gassy...

Well, I won't keep you in suspense. Mr. Stupid Scale won this morning. I resisted grabbing the hammer to show him my "inner demons". Instead I kicked him (delicately) just once and stomped out of the room! HA! I gained 1 pound. What can I say.... It happens. I could try and come up with 10 things to blame it on but what it all boils down to is that womens bodies are crazy. I did nothing wrong. Next week is another week and I'm moving on. I refuse to dwell on it.

On other news, only 36 days until we take off for vacation. Don't even lie! I know you were all dying to know! I have the final countdown playing in my head now. Great! It's an amazingly horrible song. Te-Heeeeee....


BREAKFAST (meal #1) at 9:00am.

The traditional, the classic, the wonderful, the wholesome, the usual.

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 wheat bran
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• dash pumpkin pie spice
• pinch salt
• Splenda
• (Microwaved and topped with 1 tbs ground flax, 2 tbs sugar free raspberry preserves (Smucker's) and 1 tbs Better N' Peanut Butter.)

Work was busy but not hectic today. I think I had the Friday glow going on though so nothing could get me down. I got a ton of work done and it felt great. I set some new projects up, filed, organized and updated all of my spreadsheets. FASCINATING I KNOW!

LUNCH (meal #2) at 12:30pm.

I had the BEST salad for lunch. Spinach + tomato + green pepper + bread & butter pickles + sunflower seeds + Morning Star Farms black bean burger + steamed broccoli + spray butter.


Yes, I use spray butter instead of dressings. I'm a freak. I think it tastes amazing with veggies. It doesn't mask the flavor like dressings do, it accentuates it. I LOVE it and you can think what you will of me but I assure you it's great. I don't use a TON or anything crazy like that. Just a little drizzle. :)

I had to leave the office at 3:30 today to meet Mr. Gas Man at my house and have the meter inspected. ANNOYING! Someone was out less than a month ago to check it but they "have no record" of him ever being at my house. So either they are a disorganized mess at the gas company or I let a strange man (not from the gas company) into my house last time to play in my basement. HEY, he was sporting a bright orange vest and tool belt. He looked the part. UGH!

SNACK (meal #3) at 4:30pm.

While waiting on Mr. Gas Man, I made a quick yogurt mess. To put it simply, it was freakin AMAZING!

• Plain Dannon Greek Yogurt
• Fresh Pineapple
• Fresh Strawberry
• Cinnamon
• Udi's original granola

Uhm, this was seriously tasty. Udi's original granola is by my favorite variety from the flavors that I have sampled. I also loved the fresh pineapple with the plain yogurt. HEAVEN!

Mr. Gassy finally showed up at 5:00 and was in and out in a matter of minutes. YAY! They better document their findings this time!!

I tossed in some laundry while I waited on Nick to get home. I also filled up the French Press with Dulche De Leche flavored coffee. It was a dreary, dull, raining/snowing at the same time MUST have coffee kind of day. (Yeah, I said snowing, I hate Ohio!! It was 80 degrees just last Tuesday!)

SNACK (meal #4) at 6:00.

I also had some pretzels. I love pretzels with coffee!


No more than 3 minutes passed before Nick turned the Wii on after getting home. HA! Oddly enough (shocking even) I'm not complaining. We spent hours bowling, flying, and shooting arrows together. Sadly I suck even at fake bowling. Figures! It was fun though. :)

DINNER (meal #5 at 9:30pm.

I was craving Mexican so I decided to whip up some chicken fajitas. I love this dish because it's full of veggies, healthy and relatively low in calories.

In a large pan with a lid I sauteed some yellow pepper + red pepper + green pepper + onions + mushrooms. I never use olive oil. Weird I know. To me the healthy fats aren't worth the high calories. Instead I used my non-stick pan and added a splash of water. My food never sticks so WHY in the world would I even fathom using oil?


When the veggies were nice and tender (not mushy) I took them out of the pan and tossed in a large chicken breast which I cut into thin strips. I seasoned it with pink salt, black pepper, cayenne and a sprinkle of taco seasoning.


When the chicken was done I tossed the veggies back in to heat them through and dinner was done.


Nick enjoyed his with flour tortillas and I had mine with a FlatOut wrap.


I just had one with some extra veggies and sour cream on the side per the usual.


I would normally add avocado but the one I have at home is not ripe enough yet. I died a little on the inside when I realized this! I did have some spicy hot sauce which made up for it. Sort of.


I have a SERIOUS workout scheduled for tomorrow morning. Lower body, abs and cardio. My "delicate" parts are feeling just fine today so I should be up for a full workout. It's time to get serious!! I still want to lose 10 more pounds before we leave for vacation. Or close to it. Time to puuuuuuuuuuuuush it and RELEASE THE FEROCIOUS BEAST within. Time to build up those sweet-sweet muscles for Summer.


I'm going to go "golf" and "sword fight" now. Have a great night. I LOVE FRIDAY'S!

XOXO
Ildie

Winds gusting are disgusting...

Hello beautiful people. I hope your day is going well. It's excruciatingly UGLY here in Ohio again today. The sort of day that makes me want to curl up in bed with a magazine, a cup of coffee and Oliver kitty and never leave my house. But alas I had to go to work and make some sweet-sweet cash to pay for all those lovely bills that insist on appearing in my mailbox every month. Being a grown up isn't as much fun as I thought it would be as a kid. If only I could go back in time!!!

Then again, that might be a BAD idea. HA!

Breakfast today was the always delectable oatmeal mix.

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 banana, sliced
• 1 tbs unsweetened cocoa
• dash cinnamon
• splenda to taste
• dash salt
• a sprinkle of chia seeds
• 2 tbs sugar free apricot preserves

Oatmeal, you COMPLETE ME!

Lunch today was just as delicious. I had a wrap made with a low carb La Tortilla brand tortilla, roast beef, sweet butter lettuce, spicy mustard and spray butter.


I also had some green beans on the side with spray butter,which I shared with Ann. One bag is WAY TOO MUCH for one person. I mean I love green beans but NO WAY can I eat a whole bag.


At lunch Ann and I parted ways again. IT WAS TRAGIC AND MY HEART ACHED because we could not spend it together. However, the unavoidable CRAPPY SNOW is around the corner and I NEED to get all of my Christmas shopping done before it hits! I am NOT a fan of having to go out and about just to go shopping when the roads are slick! I HATE SNOW!

What I do NOT hate it that I accomplished a lot of my Christmas shopping today. The list is dwindling away. I can now see the end of my deal finding, crowd diving, hurry-hurry, find this, find that, get a good deal mission! ALMOST DONE! YAY!

My afternoon snack was a blueberry Chobani. Yep, I love this one too! Creamy, full of good flavor and I just love how the fruit is on the bottom of all of these flavored cups! Another winning 10 out of 10!


After work we decided to take the back roads to the gym instead of the highway. The weather here is CRAZY today. The winds are gusting at 60 mph. and it's been raining/snowing for most of the afternoon. The wind is really crazy. For a while I thought (hoped) that we may lose power at the office. No such luck though. HA! If anyone is familiar with the rush hour traffic on 77 in the Akron area, you know WHY we decided to not partake in the insanity! We lost roughly 10 minutes or so by avoiding the highways. Not bad. My car was being smacked around the entire time though. I hated every moment of the drive! I NEED TO MOVE TO ARIZONA!

Now on to the workout....

Elliptical
30 min., weight loss setting, level 2, 338 calories
Bike
15 min., random setting, level 5, 102 calories
Treadmill
5 min., cool-down at 3.2 speed
Crunches with 8lb ball
x20
x20

When I got home I found Nick in the very familiar comforter wrapped burrito position on the couch again. His nose is red, raw and runny, his eyes are watering and he looks like misery's best friend "agony". Tissues are scattered about, the TV is on mute and all the lights are dim. This can't be good! He didn't make it in to work again today either. I picked him up some medicine at lunch. I made him take some right away. Lets hope it helps!! :(

I also came home to this lovely bar and coupon from Bear Naked. I've heard good things and I can't wait to try this granola bar. Thanks Bear Naked! ;)


I decided to keep dinner simple tonight. Chicken Fajitas sounded good! I sliced up some yellow onions, green onions, green peppers and tossed them in a pan with salt, pepper & fajita seasoning. I cooked them on medium heat for about 10 minutes until tender and set them aside. I then added sliced chicken breasts into the same pan and cooked them for about 10 more minutes. I tossed the veggies back in with the chicken to heat them through. DONE! Dinner in less than 30 minutes.

I made a nice wrap using a wheat Flat Out. I also added tomatoes and avocados and fat free shredded american cheese to the mix. I had the wrap with a small side salad topped with the rest of the tomatoes and avocado slices. YUM!


Alright folks, that it. Have a goodnight.

A Super Simple Soupy Saturday.

So guess what? The late night caramel latte last night WAS a BAD idea. I was up till almost 3:00 AM. I attempted to go to bed at 2:00 but it took me at least another hour to fall asleep. I slept in until 10:00 AM which is super late for me. I hate starting the day already feeling behind. Not to mention that I was expecting to have a busy day. It started with laundry, coffee and the loving task of making two sets of breakfasts. Multitasking is FUN! (I lie a lot...) I made Nick hashbrowns and scrambled eggs, his favorite. I made myself blackberry, banana and cinnamon pancakes with fat free syrup. I've never had this combo before and it was delicious. Of course I enjoyed with a nice large cup of coffee. I NEEDED TO WAKE UP!


After breakfast I unloaded the first load of laundry and tossed in the second. OH WHAT FUN! Then I threw some clothes on and Nick and I ran to AutoZone to get some parts for my piece of ___ car. He was going to give me an oil change and after looking over my suspension, I needed a ball joint. I think that's what it was. Honestly, I'm not sure. Listening to Nick talk about cars is like listening to Cantonese or Lebanese. I never know what the heck he's saying. I just nod and smile and say, sure, sure a lot... When we got back he started on my car and I changed into my work out gear. I decided to work out out at home today since Ann was out of town. I also couldn't leave because Nick was working on my car. I purchased this bike about 3 years ago and the poor baby never gets any love. I decided to give the old Gal a go today.


I did 30 minutes of cardio, worked on my fanny pack (also known as my abs) and my shoulders a bit with some free weights. The entire workout lasted about an hour and let me tell you what, I was BEAT and smothered in sweat. Oddly enough I never sweat this much at the gym. ???

Now it was time to experiment with some ingredients yet again. I planned to make some soup for a LATE lunch using low sodium, low fat chicken stock, carrots, peas, mushrooms, lima beans and thin rice noodles. I never really make soup but I had planned to play around with it today. Cool weather is around the corner and I love a good soup on a chilly day. Guess what? It turned out super yummy! Yep, this is going into the recipe bin. Couldn't have been easier either. I also seasoned it with some sea salt, pepper, cayenne and garlic powder to give it more depth. Ta Daaaaaaaa! Such a pretty dish!


After our late lunch we decided to run to Home Depot to grab some light bulbs and some basic basement light fixtures. Two of the five we have in our basement aren't working right and Nick was looking for a little project to do tomorrow wile I visit the folks. While there, we walked down almost every isle and fantasized about things we wish we could afford to do to the house. Such as build a deck, get new windows, new interior doors, new exterior doors, add a kitchen back splash, redo the kitchen and bathroom tile floors etc... The list just went on and on. I LOVE HOME DEPOT! Nick likes to rub in that he's handy and willing to tackle and try any project. I assured him that I would love to let him and that I would love to help. However, money is the obstacle and unfortunately it's a huge obstacle. SCREW YOU BAD ECONOMY!

After we got home I took a hot bath. I was FREEZING all of sudden. Then we curled up to watch Drag Me To Hell. My face was covered by a blanket or a pillow for most of the movie and I kept jumping and gasping like an idiot. It was pretty good and had some stomach turning must look away moments. Always good when it comes to a scary movie.

I was starving again by the time the move was over so I dove right in and made chicken fajitas. I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts, green peppers, purple onions and fajita seasonings. I also made a yummy side out of black beans, red onions, cilantro, cayenne, salt, pepper, lemon juice and corn. Another experiment that just so happened to turn out delicious.


I love Mexican food!! I miss going to El Rincon (Local Mexican place up the street) so much! Can't do it though! Their dishes are so bad for you! My mock versions are delicious, not the same, but damn delicious!


Nick is passed out next to me and is snoring my ears off. Long day for the both of us I guess. I'm officially struggling to keep me eyes open. Goodnight everyone. I'm off to sweet, sweet slumbertown.