Week 4 weigh in and some gothic tacos

I was able to lose more weight this week even though I didn't work out quite as much and I even rediscovered crunchy peanut butter, cadbury mini eggs, and eating late dinners:

Feb 4th weigh in: -0.5
Feb 11th weigh in: -0.5
Feb 18th weigh in: -1.5
Feb 25th weigh in: -1.2
Total: -3.7 goal -10

This morning I spent 30 minutes watching The Tracy Anderson Method Infomercial.  That woman is the tiniest person I've ever seen, and I totally would have bought it if it weren't so expensive!  She really had me going for a while, and then I decided that I am just not really an at home workout person.  The P90X that we did a while back didn't really do much, I need the motivation of a class of people around me shaming me into finishing each set.  I'm really good at sitting on the couch watching other people work out, but I'm not very good at actually popping in a dvd and doing it - I think my never opened Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred can tell you that much.  I keep telling myself that I plan on doing it someday! 

Last night, I dragged some girlfriends to the new Lolita in Back Bay for dinner and margaritas.  The place itself is what might be described as gothic and annoyingly dark, however the food was worth the visit.  I don't like restaurants that get really caught up in a theme and this one was trying very hard to be like Chris Angel reincarnated as a restaurant complete with all the ugly cheese - fake tattoos came with the check along with a giant thing of sour apple cotton candy laced with Pop Rocks.  I had the pulled pork tacos, which I ate out of their shells (yeah still low carb) and they were awesome.  Everyone loved their meals and the pitcher of margaritas that we got.  It's worth checking out if you can handle all the red lighting and over use of candles just to eat a freaking taco.  Luckily for us, this is only 1 of 3 recently opened tequila bars... so I'm sure that there is an even better place to come that's less of an assault to the senses.

I'm heading out today to visit a couple friends, if you can count a dog as a friend...

Restaurants without dessert aren't worth my time

Today, one of my BFFs took me out to dinner for my birthday and it was awesome!  The food on the other hand was not awesome, nor the menu descriptions of said food.  It was like a crap-shoot, sure we could ask what stuff was, but for people like us, asking was just too much work.  I got a Boston bibb salad that was soggy and awful - do not get that, I could only get down 3 bites.  For my entree, I ordered the "creste di gallo with the heat" which was shrimp and scallions tossed in spicy tomato sauce...on top of pasta!  God, if they said there was pasta in there, I wouldn't have ordered it obviously, I'm low carb bitches!  Anyways, the stupid meal was really good except they left the tails on the shrimp and I didn't realize it until they were in my mouth because the sauce was so thick.  Damn it.  I tried to eat only half the pasta, which was in fact very spicy.  This dinner was kind of a disaster, I can't even get into what my friend ordered... Ok I'll get into it - my arm was twisted.  She got the provincial seafood bouillabaisse, in which the seafood was actually blended into the broth making it appear like tomato soup but was in fact filled with fish and stuff.  She said the texture was strange, and just looking at it gave me the creeps.  Her entree was 4 pieces of Yukon potato gnocchi, I kid you not, it was a miniature meal...although in hindsight it was only $8 so maybe that means she accidentally ordered an appetizer as an entree, so I'll try to ignore the size - although they should probably do a better job differentiating what is what on that menu.  For dessert, they had none, they do not serve dessert.  Say What?!  They were surrounded by bakeries but they didn't serve anything sweet, which is unforgivable.  This is probably the worst restaurant review I've ever given, but I had high expectations and I was weirded out by the fact they were filming some kind of food show (I'm guessing Phantom Gourmet) so I'm not sure I should even disclose which restaurant this was, but you can figure it out if you go back and read my Twitter.  They will probably get an amazing score on that show, but for the normal person this place wasn't spectacular.

With my dinner, I had a glass of delicious pinot noir - I've been really into this lately, and it went down real smooth.  Most people go home and unbutton their pants after eating a nice dinner and having a drink, but since my dinner was only Mehh, I decided to go to the gym at 8:30pm.  I've never been to the gym that late before and there were actually a lot of people working out (it closes at 10pm).  I was shocked, what time do these people eat dinner?  I popped in my headphones and just ran like a wobbly crazy person for 4 miles and then cooled down for 7 minutes.  I felt awesome, and I ran much faster than I have been lately - I'm pretty sure it was due to the wine and the intense amount of garlic in my dinner.  Good tip: working out after 1 drink is cool, working out after 2 drinks could be tragic.

The Tooth Fairy Better Be Visiting

The day back after a long weekend is always the worst!  People are hanging their heads extra low, there are 3x the amount of trips to the coffee machine, and nobody is smiling.  I thought today was going to suck, especially after the three bags of trash and 2 boxes of recycling that I lugged down to the curb at 7:30am in 12 degree weather.  How do 2 people create so much garbage?  It really makes no sense at all.  We have these friends who live in a town without trash pickup, and they like have to put their trash into their car and drive it to the dump... like what the hell?  What the hell kind of shitty town is that?  I would never live there because we'd never fit all of our trash into the biggest SUV on the planet, and I really don't want to do that anyways - it's gross.

To make today even better, I had to go to the dentist for a cleaning.  This is like an adult dental office, unlike the "family dentistry" that I attended for 27 years of my life, and it's been a pretty harsh wake up call.  The Dentists don't come in and say hello, the hygienists don't chit chat about their kids, oh no, this is All Business.  I got a lesson in flossing - apparently I've been doing it wrong my whole life.  I need to replace another filling - the third one in 5 months, AND I need to have a consultation with the oral surgeon because girlfriend needs some fake teeth.  Sigh.  Implants, and not like the ones that make their money back in tips, like the kind that get drilled into your jaw.  I'm a freak of nature and have 4 baby teeth in my mouth that are ready to take a hike, and I have a missing tooth that should also be replaced.  Honest to God, you'd probably be like, "You have really gorgeous teeth though!"  Yeah, seriously, sometimes things that look nice aren't actually nice quality - this is like the Ikea effect... except it's in my mouth.  The awesome part will be the amount of recovery time I will need at home, the pain killers, and the sherbert.  The un-awesome part will be the surgery, pain, the potential root canals, and inability to wipe my own drool but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Speaking of drool...

I mean, a person might know that Laurie was quoting Mean Girls because all I do these days is wonder about carbs or you're like me and you instantly google: is butter a carb?  I laughed so hard at myself, I'm seriously losing it.  This is what happens when I start to obsess over something, I start to slowly unwind and go insane.  Also, while eating low carb, I sweat a Lot more working out... like it takes so little and I'll be an instant water fall.  I wonder if that's normal?

Today's workout was 35 minutes on the cross trainer (elliptical with the arms) and then an hour weights class.  I felt really tired during the whole class and I just wanted to get home and eat dinner.  Sometimes a girl just wants to eat.  I found myself fantasizing about a pizza, and that's when I knew that it was time to get home.  I'm not sure if I'll have time to workout tomorrow...eek. 

I could use another long weekend...

You may not be able to see what is happening in this photo, but there are three cars parked way out on a frozen lake.  I swear to you, this is the first time I've ever seen this kind of idiotness and it was shocking.  Seriously, this is just retarded, I mean how could they possibly know that it was frozen in the middle?  This lake was not even entirely frozen, we saw some pieces that were just water.  You won't see this right in the city, and certainly not where I grew up either, but you will find it 70 miles deep into western MA - I never want to live there, its kind of an unsettling place.

We came across this on our way home from our friend's farm.  They had a little pre-wedding brunch in which we were asked to participate in their upcoming ceremony this summer.  They've been together for something like 12 years, and they were those people that were always like: we're never getting married, we're just going to be together forever, and then suddenly out of left field they were like: oh we're engaged, so Mazel Tov!  It will for sure be the most low key wedding of all time, they told me I didn't need to wear shoes... like at all, and they're getting hitched in their back yard.

During the brunch, Abe and I were careful about what we ate and it's like they knew that we were on a low carb diet and most things were totally Ok to be eating like the very tasty egg frittata.  If there happened to be a crazy amount of food, we would have indulged I'm sure, but lucky for us the meal was precise in portion.  The battle was later in the day when our family dinner was catered with delicious Italian foods, but we did the best we could, and made it out in one piece.  I tried to just eat around the pasta, but I let myself have a little bit just for fun (it was fantastic).  I even weighed myself this morning, because I apparently like to torture about myself, but it turned out positive.  Self control actually did come to those parties!

Today's workout: 4 sleepy miles on the treadmill followed by 10 minutes of weights.  Holidays at the gym are the best, not having to fight for a machine is like a little slice of heaven.  I can't help but think that I wasted this holiday by doing nothing but working out, laundry, and catching up on my dvr...  then again, I'm really awesome at doing nothing.

The Scale Is Finally Moving

For anyone curious about my reduced carb situation this week and the results of my weigh on Friday morning... I lost 1.5 pounds this week.
Feb 4th weigh in: -0.5
Feb 11th weigh in: -0.5
Feb 18th weigh in: -1.5
Total: -2.5 goal -10

Sure all these numbers are still pretty small time, but I can't ignore that the one week I decided to lose the carbs, I also lost the most weight... and also felt the best - less bloated.  Previously, I was just trying to eat better and it was working but it was working incredibly slowly.  My husband's results were almost identical.  If nothing else, this has made us see how much rice and pasta we were eating previously when we thought we were eating so well - the whole white rice thing was out of control, but we are Asian after all.

Friday night, I celebrated with two glasses of really delicious red wine and a few gravy laden french fries with my dinner at a new tavern down the street.  I'm happy where our progress is going, and I finally feel like we are actually going to be able to meet our goals.  It's going to become more challenging next week for Abe while he is traveling since he'll have far less control over his food and his workout schedule (he may not even be able to work out at all).  I will either find it much harder on my own or much easier, but either way, I have less time to work out so I need to be extra good about my nutritional choices... sigh.  It will be fine, I'm getting my hair cut and colored (I have roots) and also treated to a special birthday dinner (@dudelbird) so really good stuff actually.  How do people integrate dieting around their social lives?  I guess that's probably what makes it hard or something, I don't really know but I'm slightly worried.  We also are having a brunch with friends tomorrow followed by a family dinner catered by a local Italian joint, let's see how much self control comes to those parties!

Bird Food Thursday

Oh, it's Thursday and how's that weigh in going to look tomorrow?  I've been low carb since Monday - I know, can you believe that I made it 4 whole days?  I did.  My husband did not fare as well, he's just about ready to tear his thick and luscious hair out.  I'm not sure if he's missing the carbs, or if he's missing the sugary treats.  For myself the elimination was a lot easier than ever imagined, I haven't had bread, pasta, rice of any kind, potatoes, or anything starchy with the exception if quinoa one night - I'm still not sure what quinoa counts as... such a strange food.


My meals have looked much like this:
Breakfast: half a grapefruit and coffee
Lunch: a big leafy salad with chick peas, peppers, broccoli, red onion, and if there is a leftover protein to throw on top then so be it - like 3 tiny pieces of chicken, and then homemade dressing.
Snack: baby bell cheese and an apple
Dinner: chicken and stir fried veggies, or lentils and veggie soup

Today's workout was 3.5 mile run increasing in speed, a 5 minute cool down, and then walking for another 5 minutes.  I took extra time to stretch out after because the gym was strangely empty due to the nice weather.  Stretching is something I'm not good at and have no interest in getting better at, it's just boring.  I'd almost be willing to pay someone stretch me out for 10 minutes a day... oh man that's the laziest thought I've had all day.

This week was really annoying and I just need it to end.  My goal is to make it through tomorrow and celebrate the end of this stupid week with a drink.  Cheers to Friday!

A Vacation Cometh

We have a friend who is an actor/improv comedian - take that with a grain of salt.  He has however been in a couple movies, but because I don't want to embarrass him - I can't tell you which ones - I can say that I saw one of them in an airplane...

Anyways, he's a nice guy who was living in LA trying to make it big and struggling just like the rest of the head-shot-toting young people with big dreams, and then who came knocking?  Norwegian Cruise Lines, he'll be part of Second City as entertainment on one of the biggest cruise ships ever created.  We were like, "ohhh wow, that's nice..." because you know, I've been on 2 cruises before and the on board entertainment was the worst part of those vacations (we saw 1 accidental nipple, and a whole lot of bad dancing).  It turns out that he will be along side the likes of Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil so I think that this entertainment might be a few steps up... and so we decided to go!  There are good parts and bad parts about cruising.  The good: dirt cheap, all inclusive (minus the alcohol), and you get to see more than one location.  The bad: days at sea can feel crowded at the pool, the rooms are small unless you get a balcony, everyone is weird, and you can get fat if you let yourself.

In just a month in a half, I will be sitting by a pool (among screaming unruly children, a plethora of senior citizens, and Spongebob) and tanning my soft body.  Speaking of soft, yeah I know nobody likes to hear about weight loss because it can sometimes be annoying.  If you're still reading, we're both trying to lose weight (this is week 3 of dieting and we haven't killed each other and both down pounds) and this vacation is the best possible motivation. - did I mention that this week is seriously reduced in carbs as an experiment?  I'll let you know how that goes, but honestly, so far no issues, but this isn't a long term alteration or anything.  I've been eating mostly produce and lean protein...yeah it's like rocket science!... I have had a few Girl Scout cookies though, yum.

Today's workout:
30 minutes on the treadmill alternating 4.0 and 1.0 incline.  It was hard.
60 minute core/weights/cardio class that was all about the ass today.  I will not be able to climb stairs tomorrow.
Also, I made a point of getting out of my cubicle and going for a 20 minute walk during lunch today - this is something that Never happens.  I'm obviously a serious athlete.  Sometimes it's just too hard to get away and then you realize that you've been sitting for like 6 or 8 hours straight.  I mean, yeah I do get up to walk to the printer and back or to use the bathroom but that's it.  Cubicles are probably the leading cause of early onset fat ass, don't let this happen to you is what I'm saying here...

Saturday Workout With A New Toy

My Saturday workout began with a run to the gym with my new Garmin 110 that my parent's and brother gifted to me for my birthday.  I have to admit, the only reason I wanted one is because my old Garmin 305 was just embarrassingly huge on my tiny wrist... this one is actually a lot smaller if you can believe it (yeah, I have the time set on 24 hours for some reason, oh well, at least it has the time).  My opinion is that although it functions basically the same as the Garmin 305 for basic use (it also comes with a heart rate monitor), it is far lighter and better looking, it also has a light function which the 305 didn't have (running at night), and it can store 180 hours of history.  However, it's a lot more expensive so if you just want something to calculate your splits and distance, then you don't need to spend the $249 that this one goes for - there are other models for around $117 on Amazon.

I had to break up my run a bit, but it was 1.75 miles to my gym in 15:51 (mile 1: 8:41 and 0.75: 7:09) and then I ran right onto a treadmill and did another 2.25 miles (averaging 9:00 - 9:15 pace) totaling 4.0 for the day, with a 5 minute cool down and then a 30 minute core class.  It felt really good today, my legs are starting to feel a little bit less like big lead weights and a little bit more like they remember they ran a marathon at some point in their feeble existence.

I recovered at home with a nice lunch and took a long nap - the nap was a horrible idea, I woke up with my muscles feeling like I had just run a race.  Maybe that means I need to stretch out longer after or cool down much longer, obviously I have no idea, I just put sneakers on and go.  I did however realize today that running tights in the winter are the best invention ever!  They are super tight, yet warm, and also somehow they look pretty good.  I always imagined they'd look hideous on my athletically built bottom half but I'm happy to say they didn't make my ass look huge and they also kept me warm: two thumbs up.  Maybe this means it's time for me to try leggings now that I've gotten over the whole bum hug and taper idea... ?

This cold won't stop me

I'm coming down with a cold at the speed of something incredibly slow?  Getting sick is no fun, but I'm probably pretty lucky that this is the first time I've been sick all winter. 

Instead of skipping my Tuesday workout, I popped a Sudafed and hit the gym.  I figure that as long as I didn't cough on anyone it was fine - I'm sure no doctor would recommend that method of disguising illness.  I hit the treadmill and ran 3 miles in 27:20 which was only slightly slower than my goal of under 27 minutes for today, I wanted to puke after, and my body was not pleased.  Seriously.  I walked for 3 minutes after my run super slow and was very much considering the various places that I could throw up discretely - the bathroom was way too far away.  The only good places were a tiny 2 foot trash can with a spinning top, or the dirty towel bin.  Luckily, it didn't come to that - I would have chosen the trash bin though if you were interested.  The lesson learned here is that even when you think you might have a shitty workout, it's still possible to surprise yourself with something pretty decent.  After the treadmill I joined up with my usual 60 minute cardio/weights/core class for a little extra hurt, oh and it did.

Time to pop another Sudafed and cuddle up on the couch.  This cold is not going to win, I'm going to attack it tomorrow with rest and my first experience with Lebanese food.  

The House That Will Remain Empty

I would like to start off by saying that I'm a very rational person and this is a true story.  Just remember that as you read about one of the houses we saw yesterday with our realtor...

The house specs: 2,300 square feet, 5 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 acres of land, with a detached barn (really it was more like a big shed), colonial style, all hardwood floors, brand new gorgeous finished basement with wet bar (best part of the damn house), attached 2 car garage.  The home has been empty for some time now.

We walk in, and take a brief look around but had to cut it short because the alarm kept going off.  Once the realtor fixed that problem, we really walked around and tried to get a feel for this house.  Initially, this was our favorite due to the massive amount of space and the deceiving photos online.

Abe: so what do you think?
Me: it's not very warm or welcoming... it doesn't feel like home.  - I just didn't enjoy being there.
[Abe says to himself: ohhh she thinks this is haunted...]

We walked around a lot, we spent a lot of time here examining each of the many rooms and the entire time I just felt very unwanted in the house - not the point of like wanting to run away screaming, but enough so that I wouldn't want to be alone in there on a daily basis and my husband travels a lot.  You can say it was just the fact that it was an old house and it was completely empty and had been on the market for 250 days.  It might have been the wall paper in the children's bedrooms that was so bizarre (USS Constitution print, and Victorian lion print).  In the basement between the finished side and the other side with like the water heater and such was a huge wood barn door - that freaked me out.  On the other hand, one of the other homes we saw was also completely empty but it felt pretty warm in comparison, it wanted to be purchased, this old house did Not want to be bought by anyone.  I could feel it in my bones.


Abe: we should totally low ball them on this one!  It's been on the market for so long.
Me: uh...well it needs a lot of work - all new windows, central air, appliances, new floors, cabinets, a whole new kitchen with tiles, new bathrooms, landscaping (there was no grass even under the snow) and we'd need so much furniture to fill this house.
Abe: but we could just offer them $40k less than the asking price because they keep coming down.
Me: uhhh...
Realtor: i can call the listing agent and find out the back story to the house and see if they would be willing to accept a much lower offer.  
Me: ok, that would be Great.  

Today...
Abe: so the realtor emailed me about that house... it's haunted...
Me: really?
Abe: well probably.  A really old man lived there until he died there...
Me: AHHHHH!! I do no want that house!!

So lesson learned here - trust the feelings you have when you see a house if you are looking because there might be a dead person lingering in there waiting to haunt the shit out of you.

Running Outside in February? It happened.

I ran outside today since it was over 40 degrees and it seemed so much better than fighting for a parking spot near my gym.  At first, it was kind of slow going with all the patches of ice and massive puddles from last night's rain storm but I kept on.  About 1 mile into the run I had a stunning realization: running on ice is easier than walking on ice.  I'm not sure why, probably just has to do with Newton's law of motion or something like that.  Once you are already sort of set in one speed, it's a lot harder to stop and try and tip toe across a 8 foot sheet of ice...it's just far easier to light footed-ly try and keep running and hope you make it.  The run itself was good, a lot slower than usual with all the slush and narrow sidewalks and paths but overall it was really nice to have some fresh air.  Today's run was a total of 3.1 refreshing miles.

Yesterday was our first day out viewing houses to buy, we hope to have a house to move into by the summer but honestly it's not looking so great right now.  The only homes on the market in towns we like are old, shitty, and needing major renovations.  I want something that we can move into needing only cosmetics, not like an entirely new kitchen including appliances and 40 new windows, oh no, I am not doing that.  Looking for: 4 bedroom, master must have attached bathroom, 2 1/2 bath, 2 car garage, decent sized kitchen, 1 acre of land, room for a pool, partially or fully finished basement, and like if the place has been updated in the past 40 years that's cool too... it amazes me how many people don't bother to do anything to their homes at all and expect to sell it.  I do not want to live in the 70s, it's too ugly for me!  The color avocado makes me want to throw up in the most dramatic fashion.

To sum up the week:
3 houses viewed and rejected
0.6 pounds lost, hey something is better than nothing

Scores bowling: 124, 117, and 71

We're Hideous

This is either the most awesome caricature or the most offensive, we haven't decided yet...

Put the fork down!

Due to popular demand - a photo taken by a clueless foreign person of us and our $11 a piece butter beers, which actually appeared on my debit card as "butterbeers".  I really wish we had asked someone who knew how to take a photo to take this or that we had checked closer before running away.  Oh well, you know what solves that?

Having a tripod readily available: my father in law thinks of everything.  The tripod actually doubled as a walking stick for hiking.

At least 25 people asked me today, "so are you happy to be back?" Answer: No.  Yes the snow is annoying, yes it sucks in New England during the winters, and everyone is in a constant state of sourness.  I'm pretty sure it's this area because snow doesn't bother me that much, but what does bother me is how it affects rush hour traffic.

In other news, you see that cake?  My mother in law wanted me to take it on the plane home with me... although I didn't for obvious reasons, we ate a ton of freaking awesome food over the weekend from Steak 'n Shake burgers to Korean food in mass quantities to my personal favorite: spicy Italian sausage for breakfast.  This is a word that I don't like to use because it makes me physically angry, but we're on a diet meaning we're both muffing topping and need not to be.  This is a constant cycle around here...