Okay, I have to rant for a minute. It has been in the 50's the past few days. Somebody in the facilities department decided that this means our office building should switch from heating to air conditioning. Not only that, but they set the temperature on the thermostat LOWER than the temperature written on it as the "correct" temperature. So I'm sitting at my desk thinking, why am I so cold? I go look at the thermostat and the ac is set to cool to 71 degrees. It may not be cold for a lot of you, but when you type all day low temperatures can wreak havoc on your wrists. The "correct" temperature on there is 73, but I went ahead and bumped it up to 74. 74 is plenty cool enough to keep people comfortable, and besides, it saves money and energy. The machine room is on a different circuit so they can't claim it's because they need to cool off the machine room!
Jessica~even though we need the A/C on here (highs are in the 90's lately) we set our office A/C at 78 or 79 (I prefer 79!!). I can't imagine what 74 or lower would be like!
Eating has been great this week, but tonight might be a different thing. It's DH's and my 20th anniversary and we're going out to Ruth's Chris steakhouse for dinner. I'm sure we'll have salad, steaks and probably a side--I'll be sure to stay away from the au gratin potatoes!!
Next week will be the most stressful week! My only consolation is that I'll be so busy that dinners will be very light due to not being able to sit down to eat. Here's my tentative schedule:
Monday--concert at the college (DD is playing with the college)
Tuesday--senior parent meeting
Wednesday--final band concert at the high school
Thursday--senior awards
Friday--rehearsal for DD's big event
Saturday--hair appt in the morning and the big event that evening (starting at 3:30 PM and going until about 10 PM)
Sunday--virtual 5k in the morning and dinner with all the group who is in town for DD's event--there will be 13 of us. Thankfully I'll be making reservations rather than making dinner!!!
Jessica, I have the same problem here. I'm constantly trying to adjust the thermostat where one of the girls made it too cold in here.
Allison, Happy 20th Anniversary.
I ended up buying myself some new clothes for Mother's Day. I bought 2 pr. of workout pants, 2 pair of dressy capri's, 4 shirts, a purse and a wallet. I bought all this while Lacy was picking out her new birthday clothes. I can't seem to go near the mall without buying stuff for me too, LOL.
I am very glad the 2 older grandsons were placed permanently with their father. He has recently bought a nice home for them to live in. They definitely deserve some stability. The father was smart, he kept a calender of everytime Samantha had the kids over the past 14 months. Most importantly he had logged on it every time she had the opportunity to have them and her reason for declining. EX. her excuses were, I'm too tired, I have a headache, the baby is sick and I don't want the other boys around him, I have to work, I can't afford the gas to get the boys, I already have other plans. Samantha was so dumb as to say on the witness stand that she wanted custody cause the child support money would help her to be able to quit her waitressing job. The father now plans to take custody of the younger baby if it proves to be his biological child. I figure he'll have that one too within 6 months.
DH and Shelbey have been pretty snotty to me lately. It's like they blame me that Sam lost the kids. I have tried not to even discuss it at all around them, but they know my position. When they brought it up my response was "that judge was an older man and has tried thousands of these cases. He did what he wisely thought was in the best interest of the kids". Also I think my MIL hates my guts right now cause she paid all of Sam's attorney costs. She badly wanted Sam to win cause now she is gonna pay for Billy's attorney costs because Sam lost. It was so obvious to me that the rest of the family had "tunnel vision" where Sam was concerned.
More on the coconut milk: I don't have a lot of recipes that call for coconut milk, but we do really like the ones that I have and they all use pretty moderate amounts of it, so I'm not planning on tossing them any time soon. In retrospect, the coconut milk in yesterday's meal really wasn't too bad. Only 1/6 of a cup went into the swordfish and 1/2 cup into the rice, so my portion (half the total) was really only 4g of saturated fat and 50 calories. I think the swordfish itself was pretty fatty, and that's mostly (73%) good fat!
Air conditioning: I'm definitely not a fan of air conditioning! It has to be really hot (above 100) before I'm interested in it. I grew up without A/C in the Chicago area, where summer temperatures are regularly above 100 with above 80% humidity, so temperatures in the 90s with low to mid humidity don't really feel that hot to me. Temperatures in the 80s barely feel warm. Air conditioning just chills me right down to my bones; it makes my joints ache. I have all these cute short-sleeved shirts and dresses and I never get to wear them, even in summer, because I'm too cold in the A/C. I end up wearing long-sleeves, jackets, and sweaters all year round.
JayEll: Your coconut milk is 225 calories for half a cup! WOW! That is scary. The light coconut milk I've been getting is only 75 calories per half cup. Granted, 75% of those calories are from saturated fat, but it's still a lot better than 225 calories.
Robin: You don't use milk? Are you lactose intolerant? I'm not a big fan of milk and I never drink it (yuck ), but I do still cook with it. Usually skim milk or lowfat milk, depending on the recipe. And isn't coconut milk really just the juice from a coconut? I think they call it milk because it's white, but it's not really a dairy product--there's no calcium or protein in it. It sure doesn't taste like milk.
DaringDeb and Michelle: Are you taking anything for your allergies? Maybe you should talk to your doctor about a nasal spray. You could also try some of the OTC medications--Zyrtec or Claritan (or generic equivalants). I have pretty severe allergies but I take Zyrtec and Nasonex every day and that keeps them under control. My allergies use to be so bad they felt like a severe sinus infection, but with medication they are much better. I still can't go anywhere without a pack of Kleenex and my nose runs every time I look down, but it's much better than it was. A friend of mine used acupuncture to treat her allergies and said that it really worked, so I've been considering trying it. We would love to get a cat but until I resolve the allergy problem, it's out of the question.
Lily: It definitely sounds like those kids are with the right parent!
morning all I'm operating on little sleep here - had to attend a City Council meeting that went on until midnight! Then of course even though I was in bed by 12:30, my mind wouldn't stop for awhile. Up at 6 as usual since I had a medical appt at 8 - what fool scheduled that? Oh, yeah, me.
Coconut milk is indeed the liquid from a coconut - no dairy involved. I've only ever used it once or twice - and then the light.
I know you will all find it hard to believe, but I use A/C in my car in the summer. It gets hot sitting all day in the sun for one, and driving with the windows open is hard because we still have a lot of gravel roads - very dusty. The library building where I work is one of the few air conditioned buildings in the city. We keep it set about 76-78. Since it's a well-insulated building, without opening windows, our only other option is to prop open doors in warm weath - which brings in insects and debris, plus inactivates our security systems. People do laugh about A/C in Alaska though. While our summer temperatures rarely go above the low 80's, we are at a much higher latitude which makes the sun stronger (less atmosphere) and it feels hotter. (In places that are interior, like Fairbanks, it is hotter - mid to high 90's). We don't have much humidity at any time of the year, though.
Wow, Alison, you are one busy mama! I have something going on every night from now til next Wed, but it's not as intense as yours - except next Tuesday's City Council meeting, which already threatens to go on as long as last night's.
I just have to share that it is an absolutely beautiful day here in New York, which means I get to walk home from work! I always get excited, because half of the walk (which takes about 45 minutes total) takes place in Central Park, which is gorgeous in the spring. Also, I get to walk by the Central Park Zoo (it's really small, only about 10 "habitats") and it's set up so you can stand by the fence and watch the sea lions swimming and sunning. For some reason, they make me happy.
Barbara - usually allergy medicine of any kind wigs me out completely. I either fall asleep immediately, or I feel like I'm about to jump out of my skin. Even non-prescription Claritin does that, which I'm told it shouldn't. But I've never tried Zyrtec - I might give it a go.
Allison - Happy Anniversary! We just celebrated our 11th last weekend.
And I'm so with everyone who finds the AC too much to take in the warmer months. I'm absolutely always freezing. I own about a dozen cardigans, and I use them all summer!
Allison-- Happy Anniversary!! How exciting! Enjoy your meal out!!
Barbara-- Yes, I'm on Zyrtec, Singulair (I have asthma too), and nasal sprays. They help, but only so much.
Do you know if you are allergic to cats? It is a common allergy, but if you aren't allergic, you should be fine. Short haired cats are better than long haired cats for those with allergies. We have dogs and cats and at least one family member is allergic to both. So, we've always gotten short haired pets, we bathe them frequently (helps with the dander which causes allergies), we have no carpet in the house, and we don't allow the dogs to sleep with us (the cats do, but not with my daughter who is allergic to them).
I can't live without my fur babies!
Thanks for all the moral support with school. I don't mind the body fluids - I raised two kids and one was a projectile vomit queen - but the microscope may be the death of me. After looking through it for an hour today I went to leave the building and walked right into the metal support between the doors. Jeez! My eyes are way screwed up, but this is ridiculous! Bent the crap out of my glasses and have a nice bump on my noggin. Plenty of nursing students around to take care of me, but all I really needed was a good stiff drink. I'm home now and I have solved that small problem. :-)
Allison - our oldest graduated last year and it is such a hectic time. I found myself at the spring vocal concert last week crying just thinking about how fast the time has gone since she was on stage singing her last concert. Youngest daughter says, "Mom - quit crying I'm only a sophmore." That will be gone soon, too.
Here's a contribution to the berry discussion. Stopped to say hi to the neighbor lady on my way up the alley after school and she offered me the volunteer mulberry bush that was growing in her yard. DH planted it for me in five minutes and now I should have mulberries next year. They are my absolute favorite berry in the whole world and the only way to get them is to grow them, I think. I've never seen them for sale. We had tons growing up on the farm - my mom hated them because we ruined so many clothes with the stains. I can hardly wait to eat them again!
I've never been much on frozen dinners - I love to cook and I love food - but I thought it would be something convenient for softball nights to have on hand. Guess I'll just plan leftovers because I'm not going to get desperate enough to eat that crap. I think I'll try the Lean Cuisine that y'all are recommending - what specific things are good? I like pasta (don't we all or we wouldn't be here!!!) and veggies but I'm not much on rubber chicken.
DaringDeb: You might want to try a nasal spray instead. Zyrtec is a completely different medicine than Claritan so it's possible it wouldn't have the same effect, but it's still a pill. The problem with pills is that the medication gets disbursed throughout your entire body; it doesn't just target the part of your body that needs it. With a nasal spray, the medication is just going to the part of your body that needs it (your sinuses), it gets there faster, and it is more concentrated since it is being disbursed throughout the rest of your body, so you don't have to take as much of it. So the nasal sprays tend to have fewer side effects. Nasonex makes a spray that has no alcohol in it, so it has even fewer side effects and is very gentle on your nose. The nasal sprays aren't available OTC, so you'd have to talk to your doctor about it.
Michele: I'm definitely allergic to cats, dogs, any animal. Even short-haired animals are a big problem for me. Even exposure to animals of just a couple of hours and I feel it for days. Animals of any kind are of the question unless I can find a cure for my allergies.
Traci: I've never had mulberries. I don't think I even knew they were a real berry that you could eat. In terms of Lean Cuisine, the only ones I have any use for are the paninis and the pizzas. They have a lot of other entrees that are good, but there's something about them that makes me hungry. I suspect that they make the portions really small to get the calories down and also add processed sugar, which probably messes with my blood sugar levels. But I find the paninis to be pretty satisfying.
WaterRat: I definitely run the A/C in my car, sometimes even in the winter. Even when I keep it out of the sun in the garage, that thing is a heat box. It gets way above 100 in there, even with the windows and the sunroof open. I think I could bake meringues in it if I left it in the sun. And I have this sweat problem that I posted about a couple of weeks ago, so if I don't run the A/C in the car, my pants are soaking wet when I get out of it. It looks like I've peed myself. So I run the A/C with the vents pointed down as far as they will go. Sometimes I feel like the only time I'm warm is when I'm in my car.
The Lean Cuisines I use don't appear to have a lot of added sugar--at least, the sweetener isn't the first, second, or even third ingredient. The package tells everything you need to know about calorie and nutrient breakdown.
I like these:
Roasted garlic chicken with lemon pepper fettucini
Lemon pepper fish (the new one)
Tortilla crusted fish
Grilled chicken primavera
Grilled chicken Caesar
Baked chicken with cornbread stuffing
Chicken marsala (this one is really low in cals)
Salisbury steak w/Mac & cheese
Garlic beef & broccoli
Roasted garlic chicken
Beef pot roast
and I do use the pizzas and paninis and flatbread ones from time to time.
Well I am getting closer to being able to come back I weighed in at 173.8 this morning so I reached my 5 pound goal for the 5lb. loss thread I started when I was at 178.8! Now on to 5 more!
MEG ~ have fun in New Mexico
LILY ~ Sorry your Dh is down on you about the custody...great hearing from Shane...my nephew will head to basic training for the NAVY in Sept.
JAY ~ Join my 5 pound thread...I guarantee a 5 pound loss
ROBIN ~ I hear you on the "cushion"...I would have to get to 165...my first goal...I really don't think it is possible...yet anyway...love the "mom in there somewhere" comment!
MICHELE ~ Hate it when my eyes get red and itchly!
JESSICA ~ Stay warm!! Take that new dog in to cuddle with
TRACI ~OUCH! A good stiff drink usually helps me too! ...well...my lighter beer anyway!
ALLISON ~HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
BARBARA ~If you lived down here you wouldn't need those sweaters!
PAT ~ I didn't know it ever got hot in Alaska!
DEB ~ My step-daughter just got home for the summer, from her sophomore year in college in NYC.
Jay, I'm usually alone here at lunchtime and I use many of those same Lean Cuisine's. Mostly out of convenience, and they don't taste bad. I accidentally bought some of the larger ones without reading the labels before and realized they have more calories than I normally allot per meal.
All this talk of berries made me decide to stop at a local farm where you pick your own fresh strawberries. Yummy.
I keep my home A/C on 75 degrees. I use my car A/C too.
Remember, I wrote that I was tightening up my eating for two days. Went in to weigh yesterday and had lost 6.6 lbs. Yes! Unfortunately, then I went out for chili at Wendy's last night--scale was up 2 lbs this morning! Has to be water weight. Need to be more careful though.
Have already been on my bike this morning for 40 minutes as I don't plan to walk to work today. Yesterday, I logged the most steps ever for me--over 19,000. I worked out in the morning ,walked 3 miles with a friend at noon, and walked in the evening to get to a good view for a free airshow. I am very pleased. Wish, though, that the walking would feel like it's making a difference.
Started taping fit tv this morning. Hope there's something on there that gets me more interested in exercise. I guess if nothing else, it will give me another option this summer.
Have a good week, all. Because of your no excuses, I remind myself that if I'm not going to walk to and from work, I have to ride that bike for 40 minutes. It's working though I'm not sure that its making any difference weight wise. Guess I just have to look at it as my exercise.
I've been very busy this week at work helping to teach an introductory field class to a bunch of undergrad & grad students who have never done field work. It's been a little stressful. I'm behind on sleep and haven't been falling off the eating bandwagon in the evenings. Last night I ate a mug of fat free frozen yogurt, 3 quaker granola bars, and a handful of chocolate chips after dinner. Getting more sleep would definitely help, but I'm having trouble making myself do that. Stop it, Megan, stop it! I need to get ahold of myself. Could someone please give me a ?
I'm laughing b/c you all would freak out in my office. Our AC was broken for 2 months until last week, which meant the entire system, including heat, was also down. We had a cold snap about a month ago and it was 45-50 degrees at night, so the office would be 50 in the morning, then by the afternoon it would be 80. Repeat for 2 weeks. Thankfully it is fixed now, since summer is setting in. Now back to the normal thermostat wars.
goalsuccess, great job losing!
Gary, great job!
Traci, don't get the Lean Cuisine salmon, orzo, and spinach meal. It's gross. I do like the LC paninis. I also generally like lean cuisine better than the others, but I like the Kashi meals too. The Kashi coconut lemongrass chicken meal is delicious!
Deb, your walk home sounds really nice. I hope you enjoyed it!
Spring is so confusing! A beautiful day yesterday turned really cold and grey by 6pm, and tomorrow's high is only 58. Sigh. Can't put the coats away quite yet, I guess.
Barbara - I'll check out the allergy nasal spray idea. Thanks!
Traci - Lean Cuisine has a "Spa Cuisine" line that uses whole grains. I like those, as well as the paninis (but definitely prefer Kashi when I'm going the frozen route).
Gary - I hope your step-daughter has been enjoying NY. We moved here 8 years ago when I started to law school, thinking it would be temporary, but ended up falling in love with the city. Of course, living near the park makes a huge difference. Congrats on your loss, by the way!
Megan - Hang in there! It's so hard to eat right when things are crazy, isn't it? For what it's worth, though, your work sounds really interesting. Hopefully your life will calm down again soon. Until then, and as requested: You can do it!
It may not be cold for a lot of you, but when you type all day low temperatures can wreak havoc on your wrists. The "correct" temperature on there is 73, but I went ahead and bumped it up to 74. 74 is plenty cool enough to keep people comfortable, and besides, it saves money and energy. The machine room is on a different circuit so they can't claim it's because they need to cool off the machine room!
WOW! That is scary. The light coconut milk I've been getting is only 75 calories per half cup. Granted, 75% of those calories are from saturated fat, but it's still a lot better than 225 calories. 
), but I do still cook with it. Usually skim milk or lowfat milk, depending on the recipe. And isn't coconut milk really just the juice from a coconut? I think they call it milk because it's white, but it's not really a dairy product--there's no calcium or protein in it. It sure doesn't taste like milk. 
I'm operating on little sleep here - had to attend a City Council meeting that went on until midnight! Then of course even though I was in bed by 12:30, my mind wouldn't stop for awhile. Up at 6 as usual since I had a medical appt at 8 - what fool scheduled that? Oh, yeah, me. 
I have something going on every night from now til next Wed, but it's not as intense as yours - except next Tuesday's City Council meeting, which already threatens to go on as long as last night's.
So I run the A/C with the vents pointed down as far as they will go. Sometimes I feel like the only time I'm warm is when I'm in my car.
I weighed in at 173.8 this morning so I reached my 5 pound goal for the 5lb. loss thread I started when I was at 178.8! Now on to 5 more!
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