There is a great giveaway contest at Moms Need to Know, a wonderful blog- check it out!!

I will be posting any updates on weight loss to: http://fromfattofabourjourney.blogspot.com/

My gym has an Abs & Buns class tonight, so I'll be doing that after I do some weight training. And after that? I get to do some work on the computer for the rest of the night... fu-UN!

This is one of the issues too- I work a full time time plus I run a business and both are done 98% on the computer so I do a lot of sitting. I've been thinking about ways to incorporate some exercise at the same time and I ran across a site called Squeeze It In. I just did all the following office exercises:

Pushing Paper
Binder Back
Work the Plank (with the dips variation)
I'm Not Getting Squats Done
Call to Arms

I did 2 sets of 12 for each exercise except the Call to Arms, which I've only done one "set" of so far because I've only had one phone call so far today since the woman with whom I share my office left for the day. I'll keep doing these periodically throughout the day and I'll do them every time I have the office to myself and can close the door so no one walking by will see. Surprisingly, these exercises did get my heart going a little bit so I know I'm buring at least a few calories from it (every little bit helps!)

There are videos for around the house, while grocery shopping, while watching the kids, and many more exercises in addition to a nutrition section- I encourage you to check them out!

Once I post this, I'm going to walk to the coffee shops down the street, which roundtrip is about 2/3 of a mile. That's about 110 calories burned in that walk, more if I speed walk. I'll grab an Iced Coffee and add just a tablespoon of half and half for 20 calories. All in all, even with the coffee I'll be at an estimated net loss of about 90 calories. Considering I would usually drive there and burn basically no calories, I'll be doing pretty good! Again, every little bit helps.

In related news.. my scale it continuing to go down but I'm not going to post an official loss for a day or two. I want to make sure those pesky pounds are really gone and not just on vacation!

Off to Fair Trade Cafe!


Update: Walk complete! Whew, it's 82 degrees outside- nice for milling around, but getting a little warm for outside fitness activities!

Heh, let's see if anyone gets the reference in my title..



So, it's seven weeks later and I've lost "only" 5 1/2 pounds.. not great, but hey- I'm going in the right direction. (And by the way, that's actually 18 1/2 pounds gone from my heaviest!)

In order to make my mini-goal of 20 pounds lost by May 31st, I need to lose an average of 2.07 pounds a week. That is completely doable so I'm not worried.

This is how I'm doing on the goals:

1. Eat healthier- basically follow the tenets of the South Beach diet and watch portion sizes. I am watching portion sizes by tracking calories using the FoodScanner and DailyBurn apps on my iPhone (great tools!) Since I'm sticking with a calorie budget, I'm naturally staying away from bad carbs and fats. For the first few weeks I was doing really well from breakfast through the afternoon, but once I got home I would cave and have a less-than-healthy dinner and snacks. But I've buckled down and gotten into a good routine of planning all my meals and snacks, so it's not really as difficult anymore.
2. Exercise- starting with 3 half-hour sessions a week of whatever exercise I choose. I will probably go between riding my bike, walking/jogging around the neighborhood and using my Wii Fit. I have plenty of room for improvement on this one and #3. I joined a gym near me, but I haven't stuck to a regular schedule on it yet. The next couple weeks I will make sure to plan my fitness the way I plan my meals.
3. Hiking with Daniel on the weekends. Yeah.. haven't done this yet since posting in February. It's getting warmer now, so I may have to replace this goal with something else. We'll see how it goes.
4. Drink more water than coffee :) This actually won't be too hard for me because those are the two main beverages I drink throughout the day and I usually stop the coffee after a few cups. Easy. I love water, so not hard at all. Actually, I haven't really had much coffee in the last couple weeks. Since I don't want to add extra calories with the half & half I usually add, I've stayed away for now.
5. If it's within 3 miles, walk or ride the bike. This includes the park, the community center and the library. I need to go to the library tomorrow, so I will drive home, park the car, change clothes and then ride the bike there and back. The library is about 2.5 miles from my door so that will be 5 miles round-trip. I didn't ride to the library that day, and I actually haven't gone anywhere that I could walk or ride to since then. I'll have to make it a point to go to the library this weekend. I may have to replace this goal as well because summer is coming.
6. Jumping rope. Daniel and I started a jump rope challenge a few weeks ago, but we haven't followed through on it much. Basically, however many jump ropes I do, Daniel has to do twice that. That's pretty easy for Daniel though so I may have to change his side of the challenge to three times what I do! Neither one of us have been jumping rope lately :P
7. No more random snacking! This is my biggest downfall. This is working well; I am snacking, but they're planned snacks now.
8. I will no longer accept treats and snacks from friends and family members just because they offer it to me- I am not obligated to make other people happy by accepting unwanted calories. Since I'm making this public, anyone who is reading this should know that if you want to give me something, it should not include sugar or high-fat- how about a veggie tray instead? :) I haven't had anyone really offer me any snacks.. DH was tempting me with higher calorie sushi rolls the other night, but I stuck to my guns and carefully tracked each piece of nigiri and sashimi as I ate it (with the iPhone apps-love 'em)!
9. I will choose an item of clothing from my closet that's just a little tight and try it on once a week so I can really tell what my progress is. Pounds lost don't mean as much as inches lost. I went through my whole closet and now I have a duffel bag full of clothes that will fit me again sooner rather than later.
10. I have a referral from my doctor to get my blood sugar tested. I will go this Wednesday morning to get that done. I didn't do this. The doctor had said the visit that he didn't think I had diabetes; he thought I had a "sugar sensitivity" instead which apparently is different. He did give the referral just in case.. but really what would I do if I had it?: I would try to control it with diet and exercise- and I'm already doing that so I think I'm good without spending the time and money on a doctor visit. Maybe I will later, but not now.

So you see, there are areas I will can better in, but so far I'm good with the progress I've made.

I choose to believe I did not "lose" this pound but rather released it to live a long and happy life among its own kind. Wherever that is.

Today seems like it's been all about food.

At 7am this morning, my neighbor R and I picked up our order from Bountiful Baskets. We both bought the organic fruit and veggie basket. We received: apples, pear, blueberries, strawberries, 2 heads of lettuce, avocados, celery, beets (yay!), rainbow chard and, gosh- just a whole bunch of fresh produce. I also bought the Asian pack, which had bok choy, napa cabbage, a coconut, cilantro... and yeah, a bunch of other stuff. I love when we get the co-op baskets; you never know what you're going to get, but you know it's going to be good so it's like the best kind of Christmas. When I got home, researched some recipes I wanted to use some of these items with (more on that below).

Around 10am, DH and I headed for the Downtown Phoenix Coffeebar Potluck which I had read about on Arizona Coffee yesterday. The event was only about 1/4 mile from my office and Daniel hasn't spent much time in downtown Phoenix, so this seemed like a great opportunity to show his the neighborhood where I work. I was surprised to see that the coffee shops were offering full-size "samples" of their desserts and treats. Here's a picture of some of things we got:

Now, I have to say I showed great restraint with these sweets- I only had a bite each of the oatmeal cookie sandwich and the Hostess-looking cupcake from Lux (the filling of the sandwich was similar to Cannoli filling) and a brownie from Lola. Three bites is pretty good considering what is sitting on that table. DH didn't each much of it either, so most of it is in our kitchen right now.

We went to Matt's Big Breakfast to have our "real" breakfast. This is a TINY building on 1st Street & McKinley downtown that either makes everything on site or buys it from local sellers, including the bacon and homemade preserves for the made-from-scratch sourdough bread. If you haven't been there, I recommend it although I can't say for sure why there is always such a long wait (we got ours to go and ate in my office a couple blocks away).

The Downtown Phoenix Public Market is within walking distance of Matt's Big Breakfast so we went there while the restaurant was making our order. We purchased some cheese and raw honey and plan to go back next week to check it out a little more thoroughly. I definitely will purchase some heirloom tomato seedlings for my garden!

Once home, I started making DH's favorite meal: Chicken Tikka Masala. I always make at least a quadruple recipe of this (once I octupled the recipe-never again, that was too much work at once!) and freeze the many leftovers in vacuum-seal bags for later. At the same time, I made Naan and two new dishes I've never tried (I'm trying to get a good stock of frozen lunches to take to work): Spicy Lentil & Chickpea Stew and Rainbow Chard & Roasted Beet Fettuccine.

Here is the Chicken Tikka Masala:So yummy! I didn't chop up cilantro for a topping this time like I usually do because I just got a quick small bowl for myself and DH hates cilantro. When you make this, definitely top with the cilantro!

And the Rainbow Chard & Roasted Beet Fettuccine:This was pretty good, though I think it would have been better with the red onion and Dijon mustard the recipe called for rather than the white onion and yellow mustard I substituted since that's what I had on hand. I think it's hilarious that it's pink because of the beets! I feel like I'm eating Barbie doll food, haha!

The Spicy Lentil & Chickpea Stew:This recipe was kind..eh. Really not spicy at all, so I'm going to add some jalapeno to it before I freeze it. Hmmm... maybe some of the jalapeno tomato salsa I made the other day, that'll spice things up!

DH has requested peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, so I'll be making that tomorrow.

I'm barefoot.

I'm in the kitchen a lot.

BUT I'm not pregnant, lol!

OK.. so I've set myself a mini-goal of losing 20 pounds by May 31st and here I am making this goal public, which we all know is a good way of making yourself accountable.

I went to tickerfactory.com to make myself a little goal tracker:



How I plan to reach my goal:

1. Eat healthier- basically follow the tenets of the South Beach diet and watch portion sizes.
2. Exercise- starting with 3 half-hour sessions a week of whatever exercise I choose. I will probably go between riding my bike, walking/jogging around the neighborhood and using my Wii Fit.
3. Hiking with Daniel on the weekends.
4. Drink more water than coffee :) This actually won't be too hard for me because those are the two main beverages I drink throughout the day and I usually stop the coffee after a few cups.
5. If it's within 3 miles, walk or ride the bike. This includes the park, the community center and the library. I need to go to the library tomorrow, so I will drive home, park the car, change clothes and then ride the bike there and back. The library is about 2.5 miles from my door so that will be 5 miles round-trip.
6. Jumping rope. Daniel and I started a jump rope challenge a few weeks ago, but we haven't followed through on it much. Basically, however many jump ropes I do, Daniel has to do twice that. That's pretty easy for Daniel though so I may have to change his side of the challenge to three times what I do!
7. No more random snacking! This is my biggest downfall.
8. I will no longer accept treats and snacks from friends and family members just because they offer it to me- I am not obligated to make other people happy by accepting unwanted calories. Since I'm making this public, anyone who is reading this should know that if you want to give me something, it should not include sugar or high-fat- how about a veggie tray instead? :)
9. I will choose an item of clothing from my closet that's just a little tight and try it on once a week so I can really tell what my progress is. Pounds lost don't mean as much as inches lost.
10. I have a referral from my doctor to get my blood sugar tested. I will go this Wednesday morning to get that done.

What you should do:

1. Ask me how I'm doing with my goal.
2. Not offer me high-fat, high-sugar treats or foods - Or understand I don't mean anything against you when I turn them down.
3. Join me! Come hiking with me, eat a healthy lunch with me.. whatever!

So there it is- I've declared myself publicly! I'll keep posting updates regularly so you know how I'm doing. If I haven't posted in a while or you want to check up on me, leave a comment or send me an email.

I am sitting in a restaurant in Eagar, waiting for one of my property managers to get to work so that I, too, can get to work. I drove around the town a little bit, trying to get a feel for the layout. It didn't take long! I pulled over a few times to investigate some interesting shops. Out of four stops, three businesses were closed until later and the other one closed for good. Not a good sign. I finally settled on what I thought was a coffee shop, Java Blues, but is actually a restaurant. I don't have anything better to do so I just irdered some of their house coffee while I wait for my coworker to make the trip here from Show Low. The coffee is.. so-so. Not disgusting but not worth coming back for. Next time I'll investigate the little esspresso shack I passed coming in to town.

There's a couple with two little children at the table across from me. I'm chuckling to myself because their parents keep repeating "we don't do that in restaurants. At home home it's ok, but not in front of other people.". I don't think they're misbehaving, just speaking a little louder than neccessary in an enclosed space. Oh well, kids will be kids, eh?

Well, it should be about time to head to the property. I'm definately going to take some pictures of the area, because it's so green- beautiful!

WWD Fashion has an article contemplating what Michelle Obama and the girls should wear to the inauguration in January.  They had several fashion designers submit ideas and have a slideshow of 40 looks for Michelle and 11 looks for the girls.  I've been having a fun trying to figure out how some of Michelle's dresses would be made.  

Who knew you could blow up a potato? Ok, well probably everyone. Me included really, but yeah.. I forgot to poke vent holes in my potatoes when I was baking them for dinner today. Good thing only one of them went atomic:



It made a really loud bang, too. I thought DH had come home- it sounded like the door to the garage banging shut.

Guess what I'll be doing soon??

8 Things I’m passionate about:

1. The truth. As in: I can HANDLE THE TRUTH...
2. Reading
3. Food- eating or preparing
4. Crafts- mostly sewing
5. (getting to be passionate about) Gardening (I ate a squash I grew from a seed recently!)
6. Learning- about anything
7. People
8. Sci-fi :) I'm a geek

8 Things I want to do before I die:

1. Travel. Extensively.
2. Write a book.
3. Finish college.
4. Teach. (But I don't want to "be a teacher")
5. Enter a quilt in that $100,000 quilt contest
6. Run a marathon.. or at least a 5k :)
7. Live with joy and share it with others.
8. Become an expert at heirloom sewing (like Martha Pullen)

8 Things I do now:

1. Travel. A little.
2. Own my own business.
3. Roast my own coffee.
4. Started the Couch to 5k program.
5. Read.
6. Build friendships, even if it's only with a small group of friends right now.
7. Go to the co-op every two weeks for fresh fruits and veggies.
8. Putter around the garden.

8 Things I can not do:

1. Make everyone happy all the time :)
2. Run for very long without wheezing (yet)
3. Lick my own elbows
4. Fix other people's problems
5. Completely hike Camelback (yet)
6. Stand door-to-door salesmen
7. Do it Captain! I don't have enough power!
8. Believe it's not butter

8 Things I often say:

1. (Like Julia) Freakin' A!
2. What the f*ck?
3. Seriously?
4. I'm not even kidding.
5. Serious!
6. What the shit ever. (that one is courtesy of DH's grandma)
7. Want some coffee?
8. I want some coffee.

8 Favorite foods:

1. Caprese salad
2. Salsa
3. Melted chocolate.
4. Cook & Serve Banana Pudding when it's still hot (with whipped cream)
5. Mom's potato soup
6. French onion soup
7. BBQ Chips & Jalapeno Cheddar sauce
8. Salmon

8 Things you may not know about me:

1. I'm going to Comicon in January.
2. I have all the current Buffy & Angel comics
3. I joined a book club that is reading Water for Elephants right now
4. I get motion sick from scrolling down on computer screens (I have to page down instead)
5. Joss Whedon is my master (lol)
6. I love making miniature things (but I don't like to collect pre-made miniatures)
7. I took years of French in high school but I don't remember it much
8. Sometimes lolcats make me lol

8 favorite TV SHOWS

1. Daily Show
2. Colbert Report
3. Veronica Mars
4. Angel
5. Buffy
6. Frasier
7. That 70's Show
8. Good Eats

8 favorite RESTAURANTS

1. Ruth's Chris
2. Pappadeux
3. Chevy's
4. Touch of Thai
5. PF Chang's
6. Rio Sabor Brazilian
7. Red Robin
8. Chino Bandito

8 books you'd RECOMMEND

1. Freakonomics
2. Survivor
3. Life of Pi
4. Dune
5. The Cat Who Walks Through walls
6. Stranger in a Strangeland
7. The Color Purple
8. Watership Down

8 things that happened YESTERDAY

1. I received reports (for work) in my email
2. I had lunch with DH & MIL- Red Robin
3. DH & I got coffee at Barnes & Nobles
4. I watered my garden, but I did not water my peppers because I've been over watering them
5. I talked to Julia
6. I received the family cookbooks I edited (time to repack and mail them out)
7. I rearranged my office while I was talking to Julia (Again)
8. I called my neighbor to see if she was feeling better (she was)

8 things to LOOK FORWARD TO

1. Cooler weather
2. Going to San Antonio next week
3. Going to Utah next month
4. Christmas carols on the radio
5. Getting some sewing done
6. Tomatoes in the garden
7. Book club meeting Saturday
8. Twilight release (yeah, yeah)

8 things on MY WISH LIST

1. Technivorm Moccamaster with Thermal Carafe
2. Blendtec Total Blender
3. WiiFit
4. Rings that Bind
5. Gardening items (or giftcard to Lowe's)
6. Black & Decker D2030 Iron
7. The Magic of Crazy Quilting
8. Serger Secrets

8 things I LOVE ABOUT FALL

1. Cool weather
2. There's a chance it might rain (or hail like it did Sunday!)
3. Holidays
4. Sweater weather (maybe I'll learn to knit one this year)
5. Sleeping with my windows open
6. The smells
7. Planning/making Christmas presents
8. Baking cookies

8 people I TAG

1. Colista (already tagged by Julia though)
2. Brenna
3. Donald
4. Sara
5. Rustell
6. Santa
7. The Tooth Fairy
8. The Flying Spaghetti Monster

Gee, what could I be happy about today?

Here are some pictures of what's growing so far in my garden...
Parsley (a bit dry right now):
Italian Oregano:
Basil:
Radishes:
Jalapeno, Bell Pepper and Anaheim Pepper:
Jalapeno bud here:Close up on jalapenos:
Bell peppers:
Society Garlic:
Rosemary
These are just the things that are growing so far, not everything that's been planted.

To see more about my garden, go to http://myfolia.com/gardener/WithoutContext This site is so helpful in planning my garden, I highly recommend it!

Onion News Network

I recently decided to join a local co-op that I found online in order to save some cash on fresh produce. Every pair of baskets (one basket of fruit, one basket of vegetables) is $15.00. I'm so excited because the produce has been great quality so far and there is so much of it.

Cantaloupe, peaches, plums, oranges, grapes, limes:

Broccoli, potatoes, beets, green beans, spinach, celery, lettuce, onions:


They also have other offering that you can purchase separately. This week I bought two loaves of bread. the one on the left is a 16 oz 9-grain sandwich loaf. The other one is a 24 oz 9-grain artisan loaf. They sell these delicious loaves for $2 each!



They charge $1.50 to maintain their website, so including everything the total for all this bounty was $21.50- such a good deal!

I've never made anything with raw beets before, so I'll have to look up some recipes to get an idea of how I want to make them. Do you have any beet recipes you enjoy?