Thursday, September 29, 2011

Good experience at DMV...

I am now going to say something I never thought I would ever say: DMV adventure was awesome today! Yes, you heard me! I made my appt online, RUSHED there after school to make it by 3:30 (ok I was a few minutes late but it was ok), was in line maybe 2 minutes, waited maybe 2 more minutes for my number then was out of there in 5 minutes! Even getting a parking place, 10 minutes TOPS for everything! Wow! All cause I couldn't find my car title and needed a new one!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

golden beet salad

Oven roasted golden beets which I then marinated with balsamic vinegar. Salad with butter lettuce and goat cheese.
Served with grass-fed lamb chops which we splurged on yesterday at Whole Foods... oh my a yummy dinner!

159.2

159-2

First time in around 25-30 years that I have been under 160 pounds! I think the change in eating has been the guiding force here (see sidebar for more info on Paleo/Primal eating). It has made us even more aware of how and what we are eating. And with eating more meats and healthy fats, I am full more so I don't have quite as much urge to snack, which helps too.

It's a good sign. And yes I know, I should dust off the scale before I take the next photo!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Carnitas Lettuce Tacos

Changing our eating habits to exclude grains has posed a few interesting challenges. For example: how do I make tacos? We love slow cooker carnitas and this weekend when I was wasting time catching up on some of the blogs I read, I was reminded that butter lettuce can work great as a taco shell as seen HERE (scroll down her pix to the tacos)and HERE from NomNomPaleo's wonderful site.

So when we went shopping today we got some butter lettuce, heirloom tomatoes (I didn't grow any this year), and I found some Mango-Peach salsa that I was just dying to try (although a little sweet and fruity on a regular basis it went fantastically with our carnitas tacos!). We already had guacamole. I haven't had a lot of luck getting avocados lately (guess my avo-karma is down) so we relied on Trader Joe's Guacamole which is yummy anyway!

I made my usual slow cooker carnitas which made the house smell yummy all day too!

This was the end result:
carnitas lettuce taco2

We managed to have several each and decided they were very high on the yum scale! Andy of course added hot sauce and other heat factors. I left mine with the mango salsa. Who needs a tortilla -- the butter lettuce was a great wrapper!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Cleaning the freezer and a new idea...

Cleaned out the freezer part of our fridge today too -- finally got rid of those frozen white packages of mystery meat (chicken? pork? fish?) that have been lurking for so long! Now it's sparkly clean and full of veggies -- all the meats go in our other top load freezer (Andy wants to get a quarter grass-fed cow but I think we gonna need a whole lot more freezer space for that one!).

I designated one plastic bin for packets of veggies and meats so I can just take portions for my school lunches as I choose. I was getting really tired of making 4 or 5 of the same lunch and freezing it then having to eat the same combination of whatever. This way I can -- for example -- cook a yam and put it into 3 or 4 baggies. Portion out frozen veggies. Portion out cooked meats. Then in the morning or a couple times a week (since I have a small freezer space in my fridge at work) take a few of various packets and mix-and-match for whatever I feel like eating that day.

Seems to obvious now...

Cross Fit has started...

Morning after the second session of CrossFit... it was better last night -- I am not quite so angry with myself for being such a weak old fart that I have to have everything scaled down to kindergarten level for me. My brain thinks I am still in my 30s but my body is saying, hold on there chica, you are almost 60. I am only mildly sore this morning so that is good.

So I know, what is holding me back is ME. Not weights, not the heat, not the CrossFit place, not the trainer, just me. I know it is my brain (= inner critic) telling my body inertia ("stay on that bed doing your puzzles, it's easier and plus the cats are there and life is cozy and anyway it is too hot to walk around that building/life that weight/row that 200m/insert activity here"). 

It's not like anyone is forcing me to go to CrossFit. I made the decision. I paid for it. I chose to go because it looked fun and interesting and different from boring repetitive gym classes. So aside from a lobotomy I gotta figure out how to shut myself up and get into the swing of activity.


Sunday, September 4, 2011

Testing out the New Blogger Interface...

Not that anyone is really interested but I am testing the new Blogger Interface, which is basically a large white space in which to type. Different from the old style with a small space to type and a lot of other stuff in the way. This is more like typing on a Word Doc but being able to upload it from here. I guess it will work....

I have spent the last couple of weeks in a relative online vacation from talking about me... not all that interested in Facebook or posting here lately, not sure why but not worried about it either. It comes and goes with me.

I have been reading a lot of other people's blogs though, finding interest in other people's travels (Budapest with Mary Ann's blog Dispatch from LA and her sister's blog Tall Tales from Kansas) and catching up with some yummy Paleo recipes (NomNomPaleoChowstalker and Jen's Gone Paleo).

Also starting to get psyched up for my On-Ramp CrossFit class coming up at American River Crossfit in a few days (9 sessions to learn the basics in a class called "On-Ramp" that most of the CrossFit places have to be sure everyone knows how to do the exercises and be safe). Now just to find my old exercise clothes!