17 Days Left (but who's counting)

Well dinner last night didn't work out as I had planned it. I got home late from the gym and needed something fast or I was going to gnaw on the steering wheel. Quickly I whipped together spirialized zucchini, carrots, cut fresh corn off the cob and doused it in bruschetta and a lemon dressing. Half way through I realized it wasn't cutting it for me so I came up with plan B. And let me tell you what, plan B was ingenious. I frequent a local sushi restaurant, Sakura Sushi, but normally I get rolls, tempura.... yadda yadda yadda. All the yummy but bad for my tummy food. So I devised a plan on how to stay mostly raw. Salmon and Tuna sashimi, salad and miso soup. Though miso soup is not raw it is still packed full of fiber and the protein my body was clearly screaming for. Well, midway into my meal I was speaking to the owner about how much I love Korean food and I haven't been able to get any from my favorite Korean restaurant. (They went back to the motherland for a month.)She gets all excited and brings out a huge bowl of her homemade kimchi and a bowl of rice. Seriously could it get any better than that?! Then she brings out these lovely nori sheets that she has sent to her from Korea and we make pouches with the rice and nori. Life could not have gotten any better at that point. Sans the rice, I stayed true to my raw and fish only rule and I ate like an Asian Queen. To make the moment even better she sent me home with a huge bowl of kimchi to snack on. I love this woman.

On the menu for today:
Breakfast- cup of coffee (I never finished because it gave me rot gut) a banana and a peach

Lunch- The left over spiralized zucchini mix from last night

Late Lunch- Spinach, yellow pepper, tomato with salsa and lemon dressing

Dinner- Fattoush Salad with Za'atar and grilled salmon.

My workout schedule is pretty busy. Zumba from 5:30-6:30 and MMA from 6:45-7:45. Lord save me.

Oh Crap! 18 days!

Well, I've been bad. Eating bad. Drinking Bad. Being lazy and not working out. The joke is on me now. Warriors Dash is 18 days away. As much as it pains me, I'm not going to back out. So for the next 18 days I'll be tracking my working out and meal plans. I want to be 90% raw with no dairy, chicken or beef. I plan on having a bit of fish because its a good protein. Soooo here we go:

Breakfast- it was crap so we aren't going to talk about it.

Lunch- Large tomato with spike seasoning, kimchi (not raw but definitely good for you) and a bottle of High Country ginger kombucha. Yum yum yum.

Dinner is going to be something new for me. I'm not a mushroom lover by any means, but I am always willing to give this a try. Tonight will be raw portabello steaks with cauliflower mashed potatoes. If it doesn't work out.... well, there's always salads.

I'll be heading to the gym for a cardio bootcamp and a bit of treadmill work. Lord help me.

At such great heights....

Mother's Day has come and gone. It's was an action packed day of going to my favorite restaurant with my family, hitting up a nursery on the way back, working on the yard, grilling for the first time this year and watching a movie (a boring and confusing movie). I was so tired by 9pm I was practically in tears before I could get to my pillow. I find, as of late, having a hard time of having a positive mindset when I lay down to go to sleep. I could just be PMSing (something I have a habit of doing once a month) but if something really upsets you is it negated by the fact that Aunt Flow is coming to town? My tolerance may be hair-trigger  but the underlying issue is still there and not being dealt with. I wouldn't even know where to begin.

I find when my outlook on life seems dismal my OCD (or as my Mother calls it.... OCDC.... Hehe) kicks in. I'm sure it's a way to take control over my life when I feel like there is none. So after a full nights sleep I woke up at 7:00AM and it was on like Donkey Kong. Breakfast for the monkey and me, I juiced for later, dishes done, fridge cleaned out, laundry in the dryer, the Monkey to school, me making a second trip to the school because we forgot to pack his snack, planting some of my herbs and veggies and attempting to remove the nasty stump from the back yard (unsuccessfully). It's now 10:40AM. *sigh*

But on a more positive note... meet my little Monkey:

He loooves strawberries.

I can see Canada from here!

What a crazy weekend! Wooo! One of the best things about being a hairdresser is the continuing education. I spent the weekend with my salon mates in Niagara, NY learning, drinking and laughing until my face hurt. You know you are a hairdresser when you get into arguments with other hairdressers about how much formaldehyde is released into the air when using a straightener. Seriously, this happens. It was a heated discussion (HA! Get it?! Heated! Gosh I kill me!). I didn't get a lot of pictures because I'm still working off my cellphone but here's a little bit of what I saw:

The buildings in the distance are Canada

 

 6am view from my 11th floor room. 

 I gave her a new haircut. But I forgot to take an after picture. LOL

 

This is my year of traveling. I really missed being able to get out into the world and explore. I feels like it's been a while since I have been able to do this. Between the education and visiting with friends out of state my luggage bag hasn't made it back into the closet yet this year (plus it takes me two weeks to unpack) and I don't have any plans of sitting still.

On the working out/eating healthy side of my life..... I may or may not have drank my lunch and dinner one of the days I was out of town. After being on top of eating and drinking so well my body more a little more than miffed at me. So to apologize to my tummy for my grievous actions I fed her this:

Nom Nom Nom... this is my go to meal most days. I had to add another meal into my day as opposed to just fruit in the morning. Though I wasn't very hungry until noonish I found that by 5 or 6 I'm dying for something hearty to eat and I ended up eating anything that would fit in my mouth. By adding a light high in protein, low in carb breakfast after my green lemonade I wasn't so mindlessly hungry later in the day. Plus, along with the boys large meals that I {try} to make ahead of time I've been whipping up a yummilicous soup and having that most meals that aren't the salmon salad. Its cheap, quick and full of flavor. 

Quick Taco Soup 

4 cups of low sodium chicken broth (eye ball it)

1 can black beans drained

1 can white hominy drained

1 1/2 cup of your favorite fresh salsa

1/2 lime juice

1/2 small white or red onion diced

1 lb ground chicken or turkey

2 tbsp taco seasoning

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp powdered garlic

Brown the chicken/turkey with the onion till cooked through then add everything else and simmer. You can always add more veggies depending on what you have on hand. 

Thank god my hunny will eat just about anything because there is usually a supply of this soup in the fridge!

What is your go to easy meal?

Bring it on Thor!!

The other night had to be, hands down, one of the coolest storms I have ever seen. It felt like we were right in the middle of it! Needless to say, there was no sleeping until the storm was over. And, OH, what a reward!! It's magnificent outside. The birds are chirping and my cats were losing their minds because they are house kitties. Sorry Benny and Phin, it's indoors only for you two.

The past week has been a doozy (hence the no posting). It was one of those, "What now??!" kind of weeks. I swear inanimate objects were leaping off the their resting places to attack me when I walked by. If something could go wrong it would. And there really was no redeeming my self it would seem. Just doom doom doom. Bah.

In the midst of the Craptacular Week I was having the Monkey and I decided to go visit my Matriarch out in her newly built (and freaking amazing) house. The skies were beautiful and I just needed some fresh air and a good does of "Get your head out of your ass, Gitchie." She's good like that. Plus she had vodka. Lots of yummy vodka.

The field behind the house

We found a tunnel!!!

 

Brownie running through the fields.

 

 

I wish I could say my week got better after coming back from the country, but it didn't. It's okay, this week is proving to be much much better. 

What do you do when you need to get away from it all?

I'm only slightly crazy, I promise

I may have not mentioned this before but I'm a hairdresser. I'm a booth renter, as well, which means I don't get a paycheck. I pay to work in the space that I'm at. I truly love what I do and, after coming out of working at a very very corporate salon, I am so happy about the new salon that I'm in. That being said, when you have days of no clients and you don't work it can reek havoc on your mental state. Soooo *ahem* in order to organize my life so I can feel productive and organized I made a to-do list. Hell OCD we meet again.

I've managed to get my meal planning down to an art form. For the boys (big and little alike) I've made a few huge dishes that I don't eat. Spaghetti, Chili, soups..... *sigh* yum. For my self it goes a little like this:

Before I Consume Anything

Green Lemonade

Breakfast

Fresh fruit

Lunch

Wegman's Salad Greens with herbs, red onions, yellow peppers, pan seared Salmon (or Cod), red pepper probiotic dressing with a dash of Wegman's Lemon dressing

Snack 

Green Lemonade

Veggies with salsa/hummus

Dinner

A lean protein and a veggie

Snack

Veggies with salsa/hummus

So far so good. They say that a diet is hard but changing your life style is even harder. No more cigarettes, chilling out on the drinking, good nights rest, active life. I want this so bad it hurts. I don't want to look in the mirror and hate what I see. I know how I got to this point and I want to do anything and everything I can to change. 

Ahhh a day off. It's amazing, isn't it? The rug rat is at school and the boyfriend it off to work. I have an hour left before I have to pick Avery. What to do...? Cook, clean, workout, drink a cup of coffee and catch up on my reading. A wonderful way to kill an hour. Actually, I have a productive evening planned and a good nights rest ahead of me. Since I've been going to bed ridiculously early (for me) at 10:30-11:00 I've been waking up before my alarm goes off every morning well rested. I'm practically Cinder-freaking-ella with the singing birds on my finger. I'm THAT girl. Dare I say? A morning person. What has become of me??


Even worse? I juice. I have this dinky Black and Decker juicer that pulverizes the fruit and veggies but not really well. I spend more time yelling at the machine than cleaning it out and you know how hard that is to do. I think I may have even had a conversation with Jack LaLanne this morning about how he needs to come back from the dead and gift me one of his juicers for a belated birthday present. So despite the slightly loud and profanity filled experience I'm left with this lovely juice that I have before I consume anything else and one more late in the day (left overs).

GREEN LEMONADE

2 Organic Gala Apples 

1 Organic Lemon (whole)

A few stalks of Celery

Hands length of Cucumber

1 inch of ginger

Juice. Then add a dash of agave nectar to the mix. Serve over ice and enjoy!

I'm reasonable comfortable with admitting that I've gone a little raw crazy. It usually happens this time of year. I especially like going grocery shopping and then slightly judging other people's carts. It kills me to see families with over flowing carts filled with crap, crap and more crap. And what's worse is I kind of understand. Why buy a bag of $5.00 (or more) organic apples when you can get a $.69 can of fruit in syrup?