I am MILF

So love, love, love the zoo.  We went twice this week, and so I just decided to buy a year-round family pass.  It was super affordable, and it is open almost every day of the year.  I will have to get pictures of the apes next time.  They were putting on quite the performance this afternoon.  I would say today was as close as it gets to being the perfect day.  Hit the farmer’s market, zoo, lunch, and then made cookies, went for a bike ride, and rented a movie.  Just perfect.

These past couple weeks have been busy.  I just got new neighbors.  The only other house in the neighborhood, brand new, empty for two years, finally sold.  They are awesome.  Since I consider myself the head of the welcoming committee and the neighborhood association, I felt it important to let them know how welcome they are and how much safer I already feel.  I put together a little housewarming gift of a sun tea jar, tea, and homemade butterscotch oatmeal cookies.  They told me they were the best cookies they ever had and that pretty much made my day.  I took there little gift over in my son’s Radio Flyer wagon with him — our “Welcome Wagon.”  

Maybe part of the reason the house sold is because of how much work my mom, brother, and I have been putting into my yard.  We replaced all the little bark with big chunky park looking bark and had laid barrier down right before that.  NO MORE WEEDS!  I have always been of the mindset that if you take pride and care in your home, that neighbors will see what a shining example you are and take heed.  I have never had bad neighbors before, so I think my lucky streak will continue.

So as far as my weight, I have easily maintained 134 by playing softball and eating basically whatever I want.  I did discover a new dessert/snack.  Take some fresh cut strawberries, some sour cream (full fat, baby!), and golden brown sugar.  Dip the berry in the sour cream and then the sugar.  Soooo good!  I have been eating this a couple times a day and notice my cheeks looking rosier. 

Man, I have got to lay off the junk.  On a positive note, I haven’t gained a pound and have been getting my vegi and fruit servings in, but I am tired all day.  I just have completely back off climbing, running, and softball.  Once my arch started hurting, I suffered some sort of mental block in running.

All I have eaten in three weeks is pizza and burgers.  I mean, not exclusively, but as far as any big meals, that’s pretty much it.  I’m not even loyal to any one pizza joint.  I need to just completely back off and start keeping my food journal again.

Things have been great.  I haven’t even had a chance to hit the gym in about six weeks, but I am playing a lot softball — and winning tournaments with my amazing team.  My son and I have been having a blast doing the summer thing.  I find the whole dieting thing to be especially easy in the summer, what with all the watermelon, salads, and tons of activity.  I have stayed at about 134-137 for a couple months.  No gain after eating pizza probably about eight times in the last month alone.  It’s all my son who is a picky eater will eat voluntarily.  I don’t sweat what I eat at all anymore because I am staying under my caloric mark and always outside.  I haven’t even food journaled for six weeks.  It’s been a nice break.  I am off to wash my jeep in an empty lot outside my house because it is gorgeous outside. 

Thought I would do a post about some of the specific foods that have kept me on track.  Without these foods, my food journal would look a little less healthy.

Grapefruit 

I think I have gone through five large potato sacks of grapefruit in the last two months.  It would probably be more if they weren’t so time consuming to slice up.  I do a fine sprinkling of sugar, to the point where it is still healthy.  

McCann’s Steel Cut Oats

Alone, they have a really nutty, richly creamy taste and texture.  But after I add butter and brown sugar, what is a beautiful blank canvas transforms into pure magic.  The only downside is the time it takes to cook, about 45 minutes all in all.  I have not tried the five-minute kind this brand makes because it is pretty hard to mess with near perfection.

Ginger root

About 11 years ago I began working at this really great orthobionomy/Reiki/yoga/health center, and I learned a lot.  A tip my boss shared with me was slicing little bits of ginger root up with a slice of lemon and adding that to my water.  I ate healthy and was well hydrated that whole summer.  I learned so much while there, but other than the free lentil meals they fed me every day at lunch and the 10 pounds I shed, this was another reason I loved working there.  These days I am too lazy to throw in the lemon.  Sometimes I chop up a bunch of ginger root and throw it in a strainer and drink it in hot tea form.  Once in a while with honey.  Loves it.

So I think it important to also blog about what rock climbing has done for my body.  I have been doing it once to two times a week since early March.  I don’t do any weight training along with my workouts, and rock climbing has given my a pilates sinewy shape.  I love it!  It has changed the way I swing in softball, the way I run, and I don’t have stretch marks anymore.  I feel it in my whole body after a workout.  The best part of rock climbing is that you can always push yourself further, unlike a lot of gym machines.  There have been many machines where I spend an hour and then say to myself, “Now what?”  

So baby daddy and I saw State of Play.  That is the best political thriller I have seen since Enemy of the State.  I snuck in a big bag of sea salt popcorn and a homemade Chex mix.  

I wanted to include a list on my page of what I am currently snacking on these days, since that is one of the foremost questions on my mind when I visit other blogs.

• baby carrots and grape tomatoes with sour cream and Ranch mix
• Pink Lady apples sliced like potato chips  with PB2 
• cottage cheese and strawberries
• any kind of melon, and lots of it
• SF popsicles — usually around 15 to 20 calories apiece
• bowl of cereal
• popcorn
• toast with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spray and SF jam
• Skinny Cow strawberry ice cream sandwiches
• pita with 1/3 less fat cream cheese, bell peppers, tomatoes, and turkey
• broth-based soup
• banana
• berries and homemade whipped cream
• thin slice of homemade angel food cake and berries
• string cheese
• salad with Olive Garden dressing
• grapes
• grapefruit with a thin dusting of sugar
• Pringles fat free potato chips
• Hostess snack cakes

So I went off the wagon from October to the first of January.  I’ve spent the last five months working out religously, eating clean, and have hit a weight that I did not think humanly possible for me.  I was never able to get below 150 for ten years, and working out and eating right simultaneously seemed to have done the trick.  I would always do one or the other before and went on crazy weekend drinking binges for many years.  I don’t drink at all anymore and take a fish oil supplement now.  I feel great.  I have also started to get into running once again since the bad weather is starting to wane.  I just can’t stomach running on a treadmill.  I hate the sound, vibration, smell — everything about it.  Also, I have picked up rock climbing after not doing that for years.

I don’t have any new full body pics, but I will post some face pics, and maybe you can tell a difference from where I started to now.

I can’t believe it, but I am 29.  Looking a lot better than I thought I would, all because of running.  I am back on WW, but it is hard to follow to a T since we aren’t playing softball until late April.  These days I am weighing in at 144 to 147.  Ultimately, I would like to get down to 135 by summer and maintain.  Baby Boy just had his first haircut today.  He was getting a long mullet, and my hairdresser made the decision to cut.  I didn’t even ask.  It must have looked pretty ridiculous.

Well, I have managed to stay at or below 145 pounds.  I am not really dieting and am definitely not exercising at the moment.  I have the baking bug — dutch babies, sugar cookies with homemade buttercream frosting, blondies, marshmallows, popcorn balls, roasted pecans, basically nothing healthy.  It’s been fun though.  I can’t wait until ball starts again.  I get a nasty case of seasonal depression and I know it’s bad if I feel this way before Christmas.

I am getting baby boy a 7.5 foot teepee for Christmas this year.  I would have loved a teepee.  Since I turned my office into a playroom for him, it will have its own home.  He is running and talking up a storm.  He talks to strangers, shampoo, oven mitts, furniture, our Christmas tree, my cat — everything.  He is so freaking cute!  I wish I could keep up with his energy better.  We try to go somewhere every day so as not to get cabin fever.  I spend a lot of time in Target, Costco, the mall.  On the weekends, we try to do fun things like go to farmer’s markets.  In October we hit the pumpkin patch.  I joined the YMCA, but it’s just seems like a hassle.  I feel really bad about taking him to the daycare — almost guilty.  He cries and cries and looks at me like I am abandoning him.  So I end up feeling so bad, my workout lasts 20 minutes and we leave or I won’t workout at all and we go to Starbucks.  Sucks.