No Turning Back

How Do You Know You're on a Diet?

When you dream about the comfort food you used to eat. And then you wake up hungry and realize it was only a dream.

Ugh. I hate the word "diet". Everyone is on a diet; a diet is the food you eat. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

My old diet had a lot of pizza, breads, cheese, eggs, and very few vegetables, fruits, protein, etc. Needless to say, that packs on the pounds pretty easily, especially when I didn't work out consistently.

But I'm 10 days into the diet New Eating and Exercise Habits, and so far, so great! I have lost more pounds than expected. But on the other hand, I have experienced plenty of hunger pangs. And grumpiness. And grief over the loss of the freedom to eat whatever, whenever. But that was a loss I need to go through. It can only get better from here.

And my success has come even though I have not been perfectly strict with the diet NEEH. Come on, what's 4th of July or campfires without smores? Or in my case, one lonely smore? So I don't feel like I'm slave to the NEEH. And that goes a long way. 

New blog unveiling coming this weekend. Pinky swear!

Olé!

It's funny how things turn out. When I started this blog, I expected, better yet assumed, that it would be about me telling you stuff. Me teaching you stuff. Me spilling my guts, my heart, and my brain to you.

Lately I feel like I'm using this big old blogsphere as an advice forum. So in this entry...

Tonight I spontaneously cleaned out a lot of food from my pantry. I'm talking food that I know has been there more than 5 years. It was pretty much just canned goods, boxed cake mixes that I never got around to making, stuff like that.

During this cleaning process, I found 4 jars of salsa. Four jars of salsa. I'd like to chalk off one or even two of those to the fact that they were hidden behind other things and I couldn't see that I already had some. But clearly, clearly I was over-salsa-ed. And it's not like I even eat a lot of salsa at home. It's a pretty rare thing actually.

So my question to you:
Um, and, um, if there's no expiration date on the salsa, does that mean it's still okay to eat? I was a little surprised there wasn't some kind of expiration date on any of those jars.

Or it means there is so many preservatives and/or salt that it will never go bad. Ew.

Update (6/18/08): I threw it all out. No need to take chances like that. I forgot to mention that I also found a jar of queso too. No chance I'd eat that if it's been sitting around longer than a week! Double. Ew.

Wednesday Randomness

Yes, Virginias, I'm still alive and well. I have been checking out your websites while not updating mine. I'm the selfish one in this relationship, I know.  But I thought it's about time to post something. Just for you, my Virginias.

1. You are correct -- I have no finished my SOP recap. And technically my one-year-limit has expired, as this week is the Lilac Festival, the very event that kicked off my SOP last year. I think I will upload my photos from SOP to the blog because at this point, the memories are starting to fade. Sorry. I truly meant to keep up.
   
   
2. See this flag?
   
   This is something you will NEVER see at my house. However my next-door-neighbors have this by their front step. It makes me giggle whenever I see it, since there's no chance in hell that thing would ever decorate my homestead.
   
   
3. I went to the grocery store over the weekend with a bent for healthy food. Call me crazy but it has happened before. What's unusual is that I have actually eaten the food instead of throwing it away. I actually had some carrots at work for a snack today. Crazy talk, riiiight? But yes, 'tis true. I'm slowly incorporating the healthy food one step at a time. For example, last night I grilled some chicken G. Foreman style and it was pretty tasty. So were the scalloped potatoes. Were the potatoes a healthy choice? Probably not. But having them was incentive enough for me to go through the agony of grilling the chicken - all four minutes of it. Next time, I will add vegetables to the meal. I'm just a wild woman.
   
   
4. I'm a bit sad that I won't get to see my out-of-town FHS friends this summer. For the past 2 summers a group of us has gathered together, but this summer it seems logistically impossible. I guess we have to wait until the official reunion next year. Drats.
   
   
5. And this past weekend I got sucked into both days of ANTM marathons. I even recorded a few of them so I wouldn't miss them when I went out on Saturday. Sunday's marathon was for the current season, whose finale is tonight. Yes, I'll be watching it. Just because I have to see it to the end, right?

Cosmos, Anyone?

Anyone else looking forward to the Sex and The City movie coming out May 30? The cast is on Oprah today (set my Tivo already). I'm hoping the hype won't be more entertaining than the movie itself. I have liked the few commercials I have seen. Especially the quips about the Cosmos, which goes something like this:

Miranda: Mmm this is delicious! Why did we stop drinking these?
Carrie: Because everyone else started.

Just wondering if anyone else is excited or rolling their eyes over the idea of the SATC movie.

And I'm still accepting questions from the peanut gallery! Come on you lurkers, out with it! You can email me at the link on the side bar over there.

Oh, and yes, the Summer of Pam recap shall continue very very very soon. I just realized the last (and only) recap was done in January. Geez. Considering SOP '07 kicked off almost one year ago, I'd better get cracking on the rest of the recap.
I sure hope it lives up to the hype. I'd better get me a Cosmo and start writing!

Complain and You Shall Receive

Update to an earlier post:

This week I went to Wendys and got a Side Caesar Salad and I got croutons.

This morning I went to Dunkin Donuts and I got napkins.

This inter-webby thing really really works!

Fiber and Carbs: MIA

Okay, we all know how much I love my Dunkin Donuts coffee. And breakfast sandwiches, which I'm trying to cut back on. Lately whenever I've gone to my usual DunkNuts drive-thru, I have not been given napkins. Not even one. and I was getting pissed that they'd only give me one napkin when clearly I have a need for more. And of course I forget to ask for them when I'm driving through, since I'm just so anxious for them to get my order right.

Today I got a caesar side salad from Wendys, and there were NO croutons. Repeat, NO CROUTONS! The croutons are the only things that actually manipulate me into eating the salad. Whiskey tango foxtrot.

Seriously people, is it too much to ask for a ga-dang napkin? And carbs for my salad?

Happy Monday. Bah.

New Week, New Habit?

So I kept my promise to myself that today I would try to eat oatmeal for breakfast each day this week. And by the way, I hate oatmeal. But when I used to eat it (as ordered by my personal trainer), it did the trick. Morning energy, regularity, the works. At least this time I don't have to have PLAIN old oatmeal.

The good news: no trans fat in this breakfast.

The not-as-good news: I wasn't bursting at the seams with energy at work today. But I wasn't as sluggish and tired as I usually am. So I consider that fairly good news.

Only 4 more days to go. At least tomorrow I will have an apple to go with it and make it somewhat palatable.  Then Saturday I can have an egg sandwich!

Tuesday Update: I'm home sick from work today. Serves me right for trying to eat healthy yesterday. So I think that if I am sick, I get a day off from the oatmeal, don't ya think?

Everything You Want to Know But Are Afraid to Read

I made a run for the border for lunch today (aka Taco Smell). I'll admit it; I was meeting a friend for lunch at the local mall food court and my wallet is pretty thin these days (unlike myself). So today's lunch choice was based on dollars, not common sense.

While at the counter, I picked up the nutritional information for Taco Smell. Why? Well I try to get one for every restaurant that I tend to frequent, just to make more informed decisions and in case I ever get back to Weight Watchers.

Thing is, I just can't bring myself to open and read the nutritional information for this place. The brochure is geared around some new salsa option that has lower fat and is generally more healthy than the usual fare.  I just don't have the stomach to find out how unhealthy this food really is (pun intended). I am not surprised that they have the nutritional information available; I'm just surprised they put it on display for people to actually read. Then again, the cover of the pamphlet does not advertise that it contains nutritional information. Wise move.

At what price health?

I am officially ashamed. I just paid $4.99 for a Caesar salad at a local cafe, Cole & Parks. To put this in perspecive, I balk at paying $1.49 for a 2-liter bottle of Diet Pepsi, since I can find it for 99 cents in other places.

Yes, the salad was convenient, which was important because I only had a few minutes to grab food.
Yes, it is fresh.
Yes, it's better than several alternatives that are much more convenient.
Yes, it's a healthier alternative to what I want to eat.

But jiminy cricket am I lazy. Tonight's to-do list: go to Wegmans and pick up one of those bagged salads for much cheaper and bring that for lunch tomorrow.

(Baby steps. Next week maybe I'll actually buy fresh lettuce et al and make my own salad :-)