I’ve Got Some ‘Splaining to do to Ricky Ricardo

It happened again. I fell of the face of the earth for an unreasonable amount of time. I tend to cycle like this, and I really don’t understand why. Regardless, I’m back! And I’ve got some ‘splaining to do [props to those of you who know what that is referencing].

After my last post, things got a little crazy in my life. The Boy and I hit some rough waters in our relationship, mostly my fault, and well… Things just got too distracting for me. I didn’t feel like sharing anything that was happening…

The Primal Challenge fell apart not even a week in. It had a lot to do with the issues The Boy and I were having, but also work was crazy for both of us. So it was really hard to cook primally all the time. I definitely was in a phase of shame and embarrassment about how I was doing, and didn’t want to post to tell y’all that I was failing miserably in all aspects of my life haha.

Anywho, the summer ended with going to a new close friend’s wedding on Labor Day, and a surprise trip home courtesy of my boss. He called me one Saturday morning, and told me he was paying for me to fly home for a 4 day weekend for my birthday. Kind of a huge surprise, but it was the highlight of my September.

After I returned from my trip home, the weekend after the wedding, I really started my training for my 5ks in October. The Boy helped to train me, and I feel it brought us closer together. It allowed us to rebuild our friendship and work towards something as a team. It gave us some of the things I feel we were lacking, or had completely lost, for a while. We ran 3 times a week for about a month, and then work got crazy again for me. I didn’t get to train as much as I wanted, but I trained enough to feel like I could get by.

About a week before my first 5k, the Color Run in DC, set to be on October 21st, my mom told me about the Pumpkin Fest in my hometown (Keene, NH), and how they were making it much bigger than anything ever before. And before y’all think I’m off my rocker, I’ll let you in on a little known secret: Keene, NH is the first place to ever hold the Guinness Book of World Records for most carved and lit Jack-o-lanterns in one place, at one time. We had the highest record of 29,800ish pumpkins, for about 2 or 3 years. But… Boston got a hold of the idea one year (about 2 or 3 years ago), and beat our record their first try. Last year a town in Illinois got wind of it too. They beat us their first try as well. Keene’s city council decided to cut the funding for the Pumpkin Fest after Illinois beat us. There wasn’t supposed to be a Pumpkin Fest this year. Well… HGTV heard about the Illinois town and Keene having very similar records. They decided to hold a competition between the two towns, to see who could battle it out for a win. They had two of their TV personalities get involved, one going to either location, and they filmed what went down. With the extra funding, Keene was able to make it much bigger than ever before. So! Being a small town girl, I got very excited about this year’s Pumpkin Fest. I decided it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and passed up my ticket to participate in the Color Run 5k, and went home with The Boy to get in on the pumpkin action. [NOTE: The show HGTV was filming for is called “Pumpkin Wars” and airs on Halloween night on HGTV. Y’all need to watch it with me!]

The Pumpkin Fest turned out to be awesome. Lots of people, and LOTS of pumpkins (we carved 16 to donate to the cause!!). It was a little sad coming back to DC, since the weekend wasn’t pretty short. But it’s only about a month and half til Christmas. I can make it that long haha.

This weekend, yesterday to be exact, was D-Day with my training. I ran my first 5k ever at the Glo Run in DC. It went so, so, so much better than I ever expected it would. It was hard, and at times I didn’t think I’d make it. But I did. I didn’t run the whole thing straight because it was really hard to see in parts, but I ran most of it. Running this race gave me such a confidence boost because I ran the farthest I’ve ever run, and kept a pace I set at shorter distances. For me, I kicked ass. It has made me want to keep running, and keep getting better. I want to run a 5k one day without stopping to walk for a bit. I want to run 10 or 11 minute miles. I never, ever, thought I’d be a runner… And I’ve always wanted to be. This was a huge accomplishment for me, and I couldn’t have done it without The Boy. He helped me so much, gave me encouragement when I needed it, and pushed me when he knew I could give more. The sweat and tears were worth it. I’m hooked, and have big dreams for myself.

So that’s what I’ve been doing with my life since I last posted. I’m gonna get back on posting regularly, but it probably won’t be daily. To hold you over until the next post, here’s some photos of life since July.

Talk with you soon, peeps.

Peace and love.

xoxo

From Fatty to Skinny-Minny/Day 50

It’s only day 4 in my 30-day Primal Challenge, and I’m already struggling. Tonight is normally date night, which normally means we go out to eat. But since the Boy and I are doing the challenge, we can’t. We also couldn’t because he has to get up super early tomorrow of his written police exam. It’s kind of discouraging, but I have to try to keep on trucking for the rest of this month.  A whole. Month! It’s gonna be a long month. Argh.

Another big piece of this challenge is to try not to stress over the things that happen in life. In third grade I was awarded class worrywart. Clearly, this hasn’t gotten any better in my young adult life. That’s going to be a hard rule to follow.

Anyway, 172.4lbs. Not much, but something.

Stay cool today, peeps! It’s gonna be a hot one.

From Fatty to Skinny-Minny/Day 48

Now don’t be too disappointed. I didn’t weight myself this morning. It seems to be a habit of mine on the days I’m not working. I’ll have to try to work on that.

I don’t have a whole lot new to report. Just a lazy day off. Sadly no 4th celebrations.

Hope everyone is having a safe and enjoyable holiday.

Eat something Primal!

Btw, still feeling my workout haha. So much for it not being as bad as the first time.

Random Thought of the Day: I saw a recipe that called for purple sweet potatoes. I really want to find them now.

From Fatty to Skinny-Minny/Day 47

I hate to admit this; I really do… The Boy… was right. To some extent anyway. My weight did go up from yesterday (174.4lbs), but I attribute it to the fact that I ate Five Guys for lunch. I know I said I was going to eat sushi for lunch, and I did try. But due to the storm and all the damage in the area, a lot of the local businesses in this neck of the woods were closed. Oh well. We ate primally for dinner (hot sausage and coleslaw–don’t judge; it was delicious!), and our official 30-day challenge started today. We worked out last night too. I’m happy to say it kicked my ass, but I’m not unbearably sore today; mostly just my arms, so that’s pretty good. Tonight is a rest night, and them tomorrow is sprinting.

For anyone that is curious about the work out portion of the Primal lifestyle, check it out here. There’s also a lot of other tips and ideas in the site, so explore!

And just in case you’re REALLY curious, my new work out routine is:

  • Sunday: Sprinting
  • Monday: Lift Heavy Things (a.k.a weights/using your body as weights workouts–lat pull downs, squats, push-ups, planks, and side planks)
  • Tuesday: Rest
  • Wednesday: Sprinting
  • Thursday: Lift Heavy Things
  • Friday: Rest
  • Saturday: Lift Heavy Things
I’m doing the sprinting twice a week mainly to help me reach my weight goal of 135lbs. But it’s also to help train me for my 5k in October. Yeah, I know. 5k’s are technically a no-no for the Primal way of living. But… One of my friends wants me to do it with her, it looks like a shit ton of fun (The Color Run), and running a sanctioned race is on my Bucket List. So I’m gonna knock this one out, and then cut back to sprinting just once a week to help maintain where I’m at. I highly recommend this way of working out. Helps to keep working out interesting, and not as boring.
Anyhow, that’s my lecture for today. I’ll leave you with this tidbit for today.
See you tomorrow, folks!

Random Thought of the Day: Coffee without sugar added SUCKS! But I have to try to get used to it. Argh.

From Fatty to Skinny-Minny/Day 46

If you read my post from yesterday, you’ll remember that I have been gone for a while from updating my weight-loss tracking. Since it was just over 2 weeks, I don’t really feel like writing 15 posts (1 for each day). I also didn’t weight myself everyday. So! I’m just going to count ahead to today, and start here!

Much to my shock and immense pleasure I weighed in this morning at 173.2lbs. The Boy was so kind in telling my not to get upset if I go up in the next few day due to our horrible “dark ages” diet. Psshaw. I’ll ignore that comment, and stay in my happy place. Though society seemed to be out to put me in a bad mood this morning.  ANYWHO!

We got our power back last night!! Just around 10:30pm. It was quite exciting. Like Christmas in July. It’s sad how dependent I am on technology. Oh wellz, I suppose.

The 30-day Primal starts completely tomorrow. We didn’t have any food in the fridge, obviously, and I certainly wasn’t going grocery shopping last night at 11pm. So lunch is out today, and Primal eatin’s start tonight. I think I’m getting sushi today. Mhmm mhmm. That I am.

Random Thought of the Day: I think I’m going to continue working on the book I started on the other page in this blog. I’ve also decided that I’m going to have a pen name since my name (which I won’t tell you haha) is already taken by a famous author. I’ll never get recognized, or other people would think I was her, if I used my real name. Lyla Madison is going to be my identity in the writing world. I absolutely love this name, and am super sad I can’t use it on a child (The Boy won’t let me). So I wanted to make sure it got good use!

Back to work for me. Xoxo, lovies!

From Fatty to Skinny-Minny/Day 27

Yup. I’m still making progress.

Exactly 171.0lbs !

No need to say more haha.

Oh, except the fact that last night I worked out according to the Primal workout guide, and the Boy taught me the correct forms. Let’s just say I was doing them COMPLETELY wrong when I was doing them on my own last year. I am so feeling it today. And of course it’s the day my boss’ dogs decide they need to outside a thousand times, which means a hundred million trips up and down the stairs to let them in and out. I had a hard time having muscle energy to walk across the parking lot to my car this morning, for goodness sake, let alone going up and down 20 stairs more than once. Le sigh. It’s an awesome feeling though. So I know it’s worth. It’s just been a while.

Well, off to let the dogs in. Again.

Xoxo.

From Fatty to Skinny-Minny/Day 20

Even with all the junk my coworker tried to make me eat yesterday (and I begrudgingly ate a bit of), I did not gain any weight. But I also didn’t lose much.

174.4lbs this morning.

The Boy wants to make the Primal thing super strict from here to next Thursday since that was my goal. Le sigh. Yay.

Super excited though. Vacation from my life in T- 8days, 9 hours, and 57 minutes. It’s the one thing I have to look forward to at the moment since there is no more date night… at least not regularly anymore. The Boy doesn’t want to spend the money on it anymore. This makes Bexy Anne very sad. It was the one day of the week I looked forward to the most. It was what made the whole week full of stress and toiling away at work worth it. Oh wellz.

From Fatty to Skinny-Minny/Day 15, 16 & 17

Day 15 (6/01/2012): 174.6lbs (This is awesome–the pizza didn’t really affect me!)

Day 16 (6/02/2012): 176.4lbs (The shitty thing about this is I really didn’t cheat too too much the day before, so I’m not entirely sure why I jumped up so much, but c’est la vie.)

Day 17 (today): —-lbs

Today, I refused to weight in. I feel like weighing myself every day has started to give me a complex where I worry about what I weight every single day, and I agonize over every single thing I put into my mouth. I don’t like that I am starting to feel ashamed for not continuing to lose, or for cheating, and then having to say what I did wrong on my blog. I was never embarrassed with what I was doing before this, but now I’m starting to become self-conscious again. I don’t like it at all. It’s also completely against the Primal Lifestyle. Worrying, or stressing too much, is known scientifically to have serious side effects on the human body. Primal works to eliminate that from your life as much as possible. So I’ve taken today off. I’m giving myself a break from the weighing in, and I’ll start up again tomorrow if I feel okay with it.

I hope everyone is having an awesome weekend.

¡Feliz domingo, chicos! Hasta mañana. (Happy Sunday, guys! See you tomorrow.)

The Dinner Diaries, episode 3

Today we’re cooking up some: Steak & Pan-Fried Cabbage.

Ingredients

(4) NY Strip Steaks [or any type that you prefer/can afford], (1) head of cabbage, (1) stick of butter, salt, pepper, chili powder, and garlic powder.

Directions

Cut off the stem of the head of cabbage. Cut the cabbage head in half, and then quarters.

After doing this, cut the quarters up into small pieces. There’s not right or wrong way to do this. Just make the pieces a size you feel is comfortable to eat.

In a non-stick skillet, melt half the stick of butter at medium-high heat.

Add all of the cabbage to the pan.

Mix and stir the cabbage around, making sure all has a chance to sit on the pan surface.

Add more butter to the cabbage as needed to prevent burning.

Add salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste.

Cook the cabbage until lightly brown. (Or longer if you like it slightly darker).

While your cabbage is cooking, preheat your oven to broil.

Place all the steaks on a baking pan, and season with: salt, pepper, garlic, and chili powder. (The chili powder isn’t very spicy and gives the meat a nice flavor).

Place in the oven to broil, for 5-6 minutes depending on thickness and your desired temperature (rare, medium rare, medium, or well done).

Plate, serve, and enjoy!

(Side note: 1 Head of cabbage easily gets four servings)