So first things first, the marshmallow and chocolate dips from Waldenbrooks are crap and this comes from someone who likes the taste of fake sugar. Maybe mine were old or something, but they hadn’t past expiration and tasted really bad. Bummer, they could have been really good, but I guess a food that is calorie and carb free has to make some compromises. Unfortuntately, they are inedible.
I think I may be drinking too much diet Dr. Pepper since I got a headache and felt nauseous yesterday and also had no soda. Hmm, it could also have been some sort of bug because I felt better later and did not drink any soda. I tried to be good yesterday and had a god low carb day after 2 weeks of going off. Bummer, but that could also have been why I felt tired, headachy, and nauseous yesterday. It was weird, I fell alseep finally around 10 even though my sister was watching tv (sleeping on my parent’s couch) and woke up at midnight feeling unbelievably better and even human. I got up to brush my teeth and wash my face and even picked up the mess I’d made of the front room (spent Sunday organizing my clothes between naps since the parents were down in Houston). What I was doing was separating clothes I like, but can’t fit into, from the clothes I like and can currently fit into. I have a lot of clothes I fit, but most of my jeans are size 10 and right now I’m between a 12 and 14. So I’m close and most of the too small clothes are going into the attic for 2 months and if I’ve lost enough weight to fit into them, I will get them down and get rid of my fat day clothes. lol.
I got an offer, but couldn’t accept it because they wanted to hire me at the bottom of the hiring range despite my degree and experience. So the range was 29-42k and they counter offered with 31k after I said I couldn’t live on 29k even in a really low cost of living sort of place. I’d really started feeling excited by the offer before I found out about the whole low pay thing. Unfortunately I(like many graduates my age) have debt and really can’t accept anything beneath 34k, prefereably 36-40k. I’ve worked out several budgets and really need a minimum of 3k per month to start a Roth IRA, pay off the cc, pay my student loans, put money into savings, and pay utilities, slush money, and accomdation and gas. Oh well, I had 2 more interviews in the last 2 weeks and while I forgot to sent thankyou notes to the second one because I got the offer from WF right after the interview and was distracted and am not sure if I can send them a week late, or if its best to let it go since this is a very temporary job that lasts until the begining of the Spring semester. But that one pays a minimum of 3500 a month.
So yesterday I ate some splenda/cinnamon roasted pecans, some Laughing cow cheese, a slenda sweetened pickle, a hamburger patty with some cheddar and Worsteshire and broccoli and cauliflower.. I didn’t feel like eating much since I felt nauseous, but that could have contributed…. I guess it was weird since there was no one home to remind me to eat, not that I usually need reminding.
Okay, so no more clothes buying until I get rid of 1/4 of my current collection of clothes. I’m definitely a usign 25% of the wardrobe person since I’m usually not sure what will fit and my clothes were all mixed up, so hopefully that will improve this week.
So the goal for the week is to drink a 20 oz of water after work and take Luna on a walk directly after work and before dinner, or maybe after dinner. Sometimes I wonder what would work best.
Posted on October 13th, 2008 by anabolina
Filed under: General | No Comments »
This was a weird week, huh? So my interview did NOT go well. 
They used a rather intimidating interview style with 6 people on one side of the room and me on the other and while I wasn’t really intimidated by that, I blanked out on the management question in a really obvious way and when I asked when they expected to make a decision, they responded that they were probably going to go through another set of interviews. Also, they didn’t laugh at ANY of my jokes. I know :kicks self: jokes at an interview=bad in some cases.
I would probably have hated working with them anyways with their whole lack of a sense of humor thing :sniffs: Also it rained the whole time and I paid a lot for the rental car and so I just drove everywhere even when I thought I should walk. I also did some good retail therapy (bought the most expensive concealer I’ve ever tried Maquicomplet from Estee Lauder and while it was okay, I don’t know if I almost $30 like it. You know? Bad self for being off my diet too, I could have stayed on it, but didn’t. And I didn’t go up and see my uncle in Alexandria (3.5 hours away, but still closer that the 30 it is now) and I spent $600 on the flight, hotel, and rental car for this 4 day waste of time (not really a waste, more interview and life experience is always good) and no job to show for it. It has revitalized my job searching thing. I have another interview down in San Antonio a week from tomorrow, so hopefully that will be better, but that job is a 4 months long one while they search for a permanent applicant since their last one fell through.
So what else did I learn in Norfolk other than I really need to work on my interview technique?
- I’m really high maintenance. Seriously, the little baggie of stuff I brought was either not selected well or the lights in the hotel room are horrid. My skin felt so dry and rough which is ironic because they had record rainfall while I was there. :shakes head: I was ridiculously happy to get home and use some good products and today my skin looks and feels much better. I bought this Palladio foundation for $7.50 from Sallys while there and I think I’m going to try to exchange it. It’s a really sheer liquid, almost like a tm and the color of light beige is really ornage. Thankfully its sheerness means I can still wear it, but I’m going to try to replace it with another one. The only thing is that the only other color that will work with me looks a bit light, but I’d rather be white faced than orange. Maybe they’ll let me replace it with another product with the same price, like the Vita-C SPF 15 Face Lotion. I really like the Beyond Belief Brand and the Vita C serum travel size I have is a lovely and light serum. It really sinks in and while not horribly moisturizing, it does help skin look better and i simply layer it with a heavier cream in my drier areas. I also finally bought some retin-a from overseas. It works out to $9 a tube with shipping, but I really miss clear skin and while using retin-a micro, my skin was very clear if a bit dry. So they didn’t have the micro and I bought the .05 and .1 versions to see which my skin will tolerate better.
- I really miss my family when away from them. Seriously I would wonder what others would say. This has made me rethink the apply everywhere philosophy. I think I will focus on Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana. Hmmm, not too focused huh?
- The whole no wifi thing is throwing me for a loop, but I think its for the best. the Internet was expensive and a great excuse for everyone to avoid each other and work on our computers to the exclusion of all else. Also, when you have a lot of time to do something, you get distracted. Or at least I do. I think having to go out to a wifi place will motivate me to stay on task while there and not waste as much time. I’ll also limit myself to specific hours because I have to.
- Dairy Queen is awesome. I am connected here right now and I have a much better signal then I got at home. And its free. I think all the Dairy Queen locations have wifi now. I stopped at one before the Wichita Falls interview last week and they also had wifi. Kudos to the Awesome Dairy Queen, although I guess it isn’t a good idea for my waistline. You know, sitting here in the DQ, I do feel so much more connected to the world as opposed to doing this from home. I guess I see why people go to coffee shops to do this.
- All Dally Public Library and DCCCD locations have free public wifi. So I can go to Lancaster, Mesquite, and Richardson DCCCD campuses and connect and plug the computer in. For a closer wifi, there’s a DPL branch within 5 minutes of the house. I’m not sure if they have any publiic outlets, so I will be limited in how much time I can have there. I think my laptop only gets 2.5 hours, but that’s probably as long as I should spend there any way.
- The parents say there is free wifi at Wings over Seagoville and that’s close to home, but again, I’m not sure of the outlet situation. Also, G-ma says we can go to her house and connect, but I seriously love my laptop (best purchase ever, even now 2 years later and with my Dell warrenty about to expire) and do not like connecting from other people’s computers. :shrugs:
So my Dad leaves on Tuesday for a temporary assignment in D.C. I know, I leave the area 3 days before my Dad flies there. lol.
BTW, for anyone flying. With the new checkon charges, everyone is taking the maximum carry ons. Get to the front of the line. I used to not care about it and stayed off the place as long as possible because frankly, it didn’t matter so long as you get on before they close the doors and who wants to sit in a cramped seat any longer than possible. Now though :shakes head: they don’t charge to check your carry on if they lack space, but one of the benefits of carry on travel is not waiting in the baggage area. I barely avoided having to check my luggage on a couple legs of my flights and at least on the first one, for the guy whose luggage was checked, they upgraded him.
So this is what’s happening with me. Back to the recommit.
Posted on September 28th, 2008 by anabolina
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So, I’m in Norfolk, Va awaiting an interview and I keep having to remind myself not to rewind shows. No DVR I also went completely off Atkins today and yesterday. My sayonara dinner was fajitas at Cinco de Mayo and while delicioso, it was carby. And I skipped breakfast and was ravenous at lunch after the flight from DFW to Charlotte, NC. Charlotte has a nice concourse, but the Sbarro was right beside my departing gate, so I had a stromboli and it wasn’t very good, but I was hungry. And this afternoon, I decided to save a bit of money by eating sandwiches over the next few days rather than eating out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t resist the ranch Doritos and Little Debbies S’mores. The smores were pretty bad and while i did eat some of the chips, I just took them out the to trash so I will not eat any more. :nods head emphatically:
Okay, so I still need to save money so I’ll keep the lc thing up and try to minimize my carbs. Breakfast is low fat no sugar yogurt and lunch will be some berries, lc flat bread sandwich of lc pita/turkey/baby swiss/mayo. Dinner will be the same thing with maybe some more turkey as a snack. Yum. Hmmm, so for Thursday, the interview is at 1:15 in the afternoon, so breakfast is the yogurt again, and lunch is the sandwich again. I think I will go out for the dinner though; to celebrate the hopefully awesome interview.
Now for Friday, I will have the yogurt again, the should be the last one and I should finish up the sandwich makings at lunch. That means out to dinner. I leave Saturday afternoon. which means I should have something for breakfast and lunch. I may eat out, but am not sure what. I guess I can worry about it when the time comes. lol.
So, this hotel also has a pool, sauna, whirl pool, and small workout room. I guess I could try to go down there at 7:30 after the yogurt/continental breakfast and swim in the pool for 15 minutes, then do the elliptical for 15 minutes, then do some strength training moves from my Fitness magazine for 15 minutes. Then I’ll hit the sauna and have a shower. I’m keeping all think quick because I know I lack an attention span.
So plans for the week:
- I do have a couple of movies I’ve been wanting to see.
- Virginia Aquarium
- Climb the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse
- Virginia Air and Space Center
- Mariner’s Museum of Newport News
- Norfolk Botanical Garden
- Chrysler Museum of Art
Posted on September 23rd, 2008 by anabolina
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So we went to the zoo with my evacuee sister and her son a few days ago. I’m rarely in pics of my entire body, but here I’ll post this one to motivate myself to lose weight.
And I had a job interview this week and here’s the new haircut and I wore my glasses because my eyes were all itchy. I guess that was the right decision since the 4 interviewers on the comittee also wore glasses. I have another interview next week in Virginia and I hope it goes well.
Oh bother, so I didn’t lose my motivation this week, but my allergies have hit me something awful and I’ve felt horrid and bought a big bag of Lindt chocolate truffles and I ate a goodly portion of them. And a couple of days ago, after the interview, my car started acting up, so I stopped at Walmart to pick up some oil and walked by the Halloween candy aisle and picked up a bag of Starburst and Snickers, they were so good and I feel absolutely no desire to eat anything carby now, so hopefully I will be back on track throughout the stress of traveling next week. Since I’ll be in Virginia, I may go by and see an uncle I haven’t seen in like 8 years. He lives in Arlington, Va and I may stay with him on Tuesday and Wednesday. Unfortunately, my interview is on the other side of the state, 3 hours away, so I’ll probably stay in that area on Thursday (the interview), Friday, and Saturday (when I fly back to Dallas). Oh, on the positive side, I drank 3 21 oz bottles of water at work yesterday.
I’ve been searching for a good foundation to take with me. I want to avoid checking anything (costs money now and takes a lot more time at the airport) so I need a liquid makeup as an alternative to the mmu in case my skin goes all dry on me. The new Carmindy one from Sally Hansen was okay and looks great in pics, but up close it left my face feeling kinda rough and emphasized my pores. I then tried the Milani tube foundation, I think its glow something and I liked it, but couldn’t get a good color match. I smack between 1 and 2 and neither looked good on me.
Then I tried the Revlon Beyond Belief adjusting foundation and ended up returning it too. No real coverage, but good moisturization and didn’t turn orange. If you are really light though, its a bad idea. My mom is very pale with all these cute freckles(I know, envy) and it looked really orange on her. I would say it is much better then the Almay one, but is no better than a tinted moisturizer and too expensive as well. Then I tried the Cover Girl Clean fragrance free and while I do like it, its also like a tinted moisturizer in that the coverage is light, but buildable and it didn’t dry out my face and has a good price. I’ve kept it. I then tried the CG whipped foundation and found it emphasized the pores, wasn’t moisturizing, and was only okay, so I exchanged it for the one I will keep, the CG Cream one with the Olay. It looks really natural on my skin, doesn’t sink into pores or lines (even the ones beside my mouth where everything seems to sink), and has okay longevity. It’s a keeper of all the ones I’ve tried despite being a little pink. I may try it with some edm yellow powder beneath it.
I was going to be happy with the Rimmel with minerals which is a good one, but not a good color match for me. I’m happy my skin is darker then my mom’s because I’m often the lightest colors in ds foundation. My Mom could never use Rimmel and I’m level 2 with Cover Girl and I can tell the next lighter would still be too dark for Moms. Poor thing. Oh, and I almost forgot I tried the Sonia Kashuk Perfecting Foundation in Cream and found it was way to dark and yellow and looked orange on my skin. I just returned it rather than try to get aa better match since I realized I had too many foundations. lol.
Posted on September 21st, 2008 by anabolina
Filed under: General | 1 Comment »
So far so good. I got up and ate breakfast
My Eggs
3 eggs
1/3 cup italian blend cheese
1 tbsp Pato Canned Salsa (red can)
1tsp chopped green chilis
salt and pepper to taste
I whisked the eggs and added the salsa, chilis, and salt and pepper and used the butter spray on the skillet on medium.
Make the eggs lie scambled ones
Plate eggs and top with cheese, then eat up. Yum.
I also made the shrimp and cauliflower again and it was tasty, but that is the last of my shrimp and I still have 5 pork chops left and I’ll eat them over the next 2 days.
Posted on September 7th, 2008 by anabolina
Filed under: food plan | No Comments »
So my parents went to Red Lobster last night and inspired me to look at the website because it sounded good. The shrimp scami looked really good, but I’ve promised myself no eating out for a week.
My Shrimp Scami (serves 1)
Ingredients:
- frozen, deveined small shimp, 8-12
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp flax seed mill
- 1/3 cup parmesan (the kind that comes in the canister)
- 1/2 avocado
- 3 tbsp butter
- garlic powder
- salt
- Italian cheese blend
Process
- First nuke shrimp in bowl for 45 seconds
- medium high skillet temp
- melt butter and add garlic powder to skillet
- dredge defrosted shrimp is eggs and then flax/parmasan mix
- Plop into skillet and cook until pink and tender
- dice avocado and place on plate
- place shrimp over avocado
- Top with Italian cheese blend
Anyway, so I had this with mashed cauliflower and will have the creamy jello for desert. You know, once in awhile I meet someone whose life makes my life seem so much better. I try to be a good listener and there’s this girl at work who I’ve spoken to a couple of times, just off-hand and being pleasant. I asked her how she was today and she told be about her situation. She’s in an abusive relationship, moved here to Texas from California to be with him and it’s been a few months and he is very emotionally and verbally abusive and he’s hit her a few times too and he controls herto the point she’s made no friends and the only person she talks to other than him is his mother. I tried to listen and be an non-judgemental as possible since she is obviously with him for a reason and telling her she’s stupid for staying would only shut her down.
So after we talked for, like, an hour. I told her she deserves to be happy and asked her how often she’s been happy since moving here. I gave her my phone (yes he snoops on hers) and she called some friends in California to talk to them and brought my phone back an hour later and she was glowing and grinning. I mean, she’s been having suicidal thoughts since she moved here and she’s never had them before. Being with him makes her feel so lost, alone, and hopeless. She said she felt so much better after talking it out. She said she wants to leave him and I think she means it. I gave her the number for a battered woman’s shelter and told her she could stay with me if she has to leave him before she has everything set up. She has a friend coming out here for Thanksgiving and she’s wondering if she should wait and go back with him. The thing is, that he’s made death threats (pulled a loaded gun on her after she told him she wanted to shoot herself) and she says he’s worse on steroids and he’s starting to take them. Thankfully, she can probably get a transfer back to California pretty easily). I really hope everything works out for the best.
As I said, hearing her story makes me realilze how trivial my concerns are. She has something to worry about, I don’t.
Posted on September 6th, 2008 by anabolina
Filed under: General, food plan | No Comments »
Hmmm, so dinner tonight was:
- Easy Baked Pork Chops
- Green beans(canned) mixed with salt, garlic powder, butter spray, frozed chopped onions (microwaved for 2 minutes with pork chop
- creamy jello
- Diet orange soda
So before sleeping tonight, I reckon I will have a cut of the decaf green tea.
So I was feeling really down about the whole car radio thing, but then I got a call requesting an interview for a job just outside of Boston in Massachusetts. I have to pay for the plane ticket out there, but its only $350 and I’ve never been there so it would be nice to see it even if I don’t get the job. I’m feeling more cheered with the news anyway. It’s hard to put out resumes and cover letters for 3 months and get only one interview. 
Hopefully, soon I can fit into this dress. I haven’t had a chance to finish it since it’s really, like skin-tight on me. Hopefully soon it will fit and I can get the motivation finish it. I’m thinking of adding a blue and white border to the neckline. The second pic has the blue and I would put another line of white over it.
Posted on September 5th, 2008 by anabolina
Filed under: General, food plan | 1 Comment »
Yum, breakfast was 3 scrambled eggs, and I went ahead and had a pork chop and some green tea. Awesome.
So mid-morning snack was a shake made from 1 oz of cream cheese, 1/2 scoop of protein powder, dutch chocolate and dark chocolate powderr, cinnamon, a tsp of liquid splenda, and half of a 1/3 cup of splenda powder. Yum
Lunch was a pork chop and salad with some soda (yay, no soda until noon and it was seriously calling me from the kitchen:drink me:
Yep, staying on plan for this first day and I don’t have the headache or sick feeling that came this past summer when I took up Atkins when the parents were gone.
I just rewatched the final episode of House from Season 4 again and even though this is the second time I’ve seen it, I still get teary eyed. So Awesomely acted and edited and directed to pull at the heartstrings.
I am feeling serriously stressed this morning because I won a car radio for $325 with shipping from Ebay (a lot of money for me, but it was a nice radio) and I haven’t recieved a shipping number and normally sellers using uPS Ground give me a tracking number, but I’ve not recieved one and I went to Ebay to send the seller a message and guess what? The seller is no longer on Ebay. Seriously, I seent Ebay and Paypal messages asking if I should worry now, or give it another week to arrive. Ebay sent my the phone number for the seller to call them and guess what? The seller is not connected to that number at all… No one by that name lives there, although it is a hispanic family and the seller has a hispanic name. No, I’m just being paranoid.
Anyway, so the minimum protection with Paypal is only $200, some items and sellers have $2000 protection, but I can’t look at the listing and find out what protection they had because the listing is down because they are no longer a seller on Ebay. So, if I’m only covered for the minimum, I will only get $200 back and probably have to wait quite awhile before getting the money. I’d saved that money up for a radio since I’m out of a job right now (temping only :() but needed something to listen to in my car. Dognabbit.
There’s absolutely nothing I can do about it right now, but my mind keeps going back to it. So, I’m feeling the stress and as an emotional eater, I just want some warm brownies to make me feel better, maybe some with ice cream and chocolate sauce. Yum, but no. They say that thinner people have a greater chance of being hired and getting more money. I woudn’t want to be crazy skinny, but fit would be nice.
Anyway, wish me luck!!!
Posted on September 5th, 2008 by anabolina
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So my goal is to weight 160 lbs by September 30 and I realized that my birthday is October 5. So I think my goal is extended to October 5. So I will lose 18 lbs by my birthday and for the present both me and my sister ( a different one, the mother of my adorable nephew whose birthday is 2 days before mine) will have a girly afternoon and get out nails done. I was going to be down there with her anyway since my nephew is in a costume contest in the Rice Festival. He won the crawling contest last year and since his Dad’s family has all been track stars, I reckon he’ll win many more races before long.
I just took Luna on a walk around the neighbrhood, such fun, and dinner was the porkchops, creamed spinach, and a salad I didn’t each much of because the Ranch dressing tasted weird, very mayonaisish and its Kraft brand buttermilk ranch.
BTW: For anyone else doing Atkins, these are some of my favorite sites:
Okay, so these are some of my fav sites. If anyone knows any better ones, let me know.
Posted on September 4th, 2008 by anabolina
Filed under: changes, food plan | 2 Comments »
Hey, who says resolutions can only be made in January? My resolution for September is to:
- Remain Atkin’s friendly, maybe induction for the month with simply a few more veggies added in the last week.
- Eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 2 small snacks if hungry.
- breakfast is something with eggs and decafinated green tea before 8 am
- lunch is a baked/grilled/canned meat with a small salad or lc soup
- dinner is a baked/grilled meat, jello, small salad, a lc veggies like broccoli, brussel sprouts, spinach, or green beans
- a snack is cheese, a pickle, a small amount of pork skins, a lc shake, or lc jerky
- not eat or drink soda after 9 pm. I can drink decafinated green tea and water.
- sleep at 11-12 pm
- do the dishes every day since no one else will do them and if I don’t do them, I don’t want to cook, and if I don’t want to cook, I pick up something bad for me at fast food and spend way too much money.
- try out new veggies
- take Luna for an evening constitutional (walk)
- LOSE WEIGHT so I can fit into my clothes that fit me okay before a month ago when my summer job ended and I started spending more time at home.
To recap, baked meats, more veggies, no ice cream, cookies, chips, or other processed foods, decafinated green tea, daily walk, more water.
Reward for being good in September?
I will get my nails done and eyebrows waxed at the salon. Maybe I’ll invite my sister to go with me since she wants to know what its like to ge her nails done. Oh the joys of being 16. Wish me luck!!!
For a reward to you all who read my post. Here is a picture of my adorable nephew (I know, he still has no hair). They came up because of Hurricane Gustav, so we got to see them again(also saw them for my sisterr’s anniversary last week). I’m waiting for my car radio to come from eBay so I can install it and have an awesome and lc road trip down to visit.
Posted on September 4th, 2008 by anabolina
Filed under: food plan | 2 Comments »
