Since starting school and starting birth control pills in July, I have gained right around ten pounds. I think it may have been more like fifteen at once (aww, I gained my Freshman Fifteen… at age 30…) but I’ve lost about five of those. I really think it’s more the pill than the school… while I am busy, it does seem harder to lose weight now. But I have had only one period since July and no PMS, so… that’s worth it. I’ll learn to deal! Admittedly, I have been eating like a total hog. And now I have a sinus infection on top of that, but I’m trying to work through it.
So here’s the deal: I really must eat better! We’ve slipped into a habit of eating out way too often, and too many convenience foods- the take & bake pizzas from the grocery store deli, frozen packaged Chinese meals, etc. Which probably has a lot to do, also, with why I got sick. When I’m eating right, I never get sick.
No more. The unhealthy eating habit is done as of yesterday. I’ve got to get it together and start cooking again. And posting recipes again. I know I can find a balance where I can make healthy meals that are fairly quick/easy, and I’m going to share them with you. Starting tonight! I’m going to be making some soup, so stay tuned for that recipe later. It snowed last night, so today is a perfect soup day.
If anyone has any fairly easy and healthy recipes they’d like to share, please email them to me at rachelspangler at gmail dot com. I’d love to try your recipes out and share them here!
I am so stuck at this plateau right now, it is driving me nuts. I am about ten pounds where I would ultimately like to be. Ten pounds isn’t much but at the same time, that last ten pounds is the hardest! I was planning to do p90x again but have decided to put that off for a bit. Instead, I’m back to my old standby: walking. You might know by now how I feel about walking- I love it. Especially when I can go for a walk outside, which I get to do three days a week. The other days, I’m walking on my treadmill while reading my Kindle which is almost as good. But still, I have been stuck at this plateau for a few weeks now and it is making me insane!
A lot of my trouble with it right now is just being too busy. School is quite literally taking up all of my time. I spend at least four hours a day between schoolwork and studying (quite often it’s more), and a total of six hours a week in my one in-person class (anatomy & physiology). I still have to fit in time with my family, cleaning, laundry, shopping… and cooking. Which is where I am falling short. And herein lies the issue.
So my typical day starts at 6:30. I’ve got to get the kids up, fed, and ready for school. I take them to school, then take my hour-long walk. After I’ve done that, gotten ready, maybe made a trip to the grocery store, cleaned a few things, put in a load of laundry, done some homework, sat in class for three hours (if it’s Monday or Wednesday), then picked up the kids and we roll into the driveway at 4:45… the last thing I want to do is cook a meal!
I really need to work on this. Less eating out would be excellent on the budget AND the waistline. I’ve just got to plan better. I know I can shed this last ten pounds, and with walking for an hour every day it really shouldn’t take long as long as I can stay away from that damn general’s chicken!
As I’m sitting here with naked people on my desk… what?! It’s for school! No, really.. hang on, I’m getting my camera….
 I SEE UR BUTT. Can you imagine being one of these two people? I wonder if strangers ever just come up to them in restaurants or bars or whatever and are like “Hey… so… I was doing my homework the other night and… um… have you ever considered waxing your genitals?”
Anyway, what? Oh yeah, so.
My brain is full of anatomy & physiology. Like, all the damn time. I dreamt of connective tissues for hours last night. Haha… yeah, that’d be totally funny if I wasn’t dead serious. Just images of histology slides dancing through my head ALL NIGHT. So tonight I thought I’d attempt unwind and talk about something else and maybe I won’t wake up in the middle of the night naming chemical bonds. That’d be special. BUT THEN I WOUND UP TALKING ABOUT ANATOMY FOR LIKE FIVE PARAGRAPHS OMG.
So to sum up: school is going fairly well. It’s hard but I’m enjoying it. The kids are having a hard time adjusting to the fact that I have to do homework about three hours per day. Tim has been great with helping around the house and keeping the kids occupied when he is home so I can study. I just missing having time to do other things, like cook!
I used to love to cook. I miss that version of me sometimes. Now I just take classes and transport children to places. I try to fit cooking in where I can, and I’ve been making a real effort to make healthy meals; unfortunately I haven’t had any time to share them here. But guess what? FALL IS HERE. That means lots of soup. You all know how I love soup, right? Yeah. So maybe I’ll food blog again. Being here makes me want to. Let’s cross our fingers.
Oh, and I’ve re-started p90x- tomorrow is the first day of week two, so I’ve only JUST re-started. I really needed it. With how busy I’ve been for like the past… five months? I lost lots of my muscle tone and endurance and gained about 10 pounds, so it’s time to fix that. I know, who works out AFTER summer is over, right? Well. Me. And so far, so good. And by “good” I mean “I am so sore I wish I were dead.”
It really annoys me when my Yahoo toolbar decides to randomly switch the order my icons appear. I’m used to them being in certain places and I cannot tell you how many times this morning I’ve opened the weather report when I meant to be getting into my bookmarks. D’OH!
Anyway, the reason I sat down to write a blog wasn’t to complain about Yahoo. I am finally feeling better, and back to 100%. I have been pretty much since Monday, so I’ve been enjoying not coughing. I’d almost forgotten what that’s like! I’m back to working out, though I still haven’t gotten back into the swing of P90X- though, the good news is that I’ve lost about three pounds in the last couple of weeks. I have been switching it up between walking and running on the treadmill, taking walks outside when the weather permits, and doing Kenpo X which is my favorite of all the P90X workouts. I intend to re-start P90X when I get back from New York in April.
Did you just see that?! NEW YORK. I am so excited I’m practically vibrating! I leave for New York City in twelve days. This will be my first trip there, and I am going to stay with my friend Denise for a week. So much to see, and do… and eat.
Since I’ll be gone for a week, I am currently in the process of making doubles of everything I cook and freezing the second one for my husband and kids to enjoy while I’m away. So far there is a pan and a half of lasagna in there. My lasagna- which is amazingly delicious- is this one by Emeril which is horribly fattening and full of many pounds of cheese but it’s lasagna, people. You don’t eat lasagna for the health benefits, right? I have tried a bajillion lasagna recipes and none of them even come close to this, both in flavor and in ease of preparation (I hate boiling the noodles!!!!!!!! Also, I seriously dislike cottage cheese in lasagna- blech!).
When I’m short on time as I was yesterday, I use Newman’s Own Sockarooni jarred sauce- two whole jars go into each pan of lasagna. It’s my favorite jarred sauce, and all-natural. Of course homemade is better still but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do sometimes. Oh- also, I used sweet Italian sausage in place of the ground pork. SO GOOD.
Today or tomorrow, I intend to make a couple of Reuben Loafs (think a Reuben sandwich baked inside a loaf of bread!) and put one in the freezer. That recipe will appear when I’ve got a picture to share. It’s one of my husband’s favorite things.
Well, the good news is that after a three week battle with florescent snot, sinus headaches, sore throats, bad chest congestion, coughing, a round of antibiotics, albuterol inhalers, humidifiers, 3,000 mg of vitamin c per day, hot tea, and about 6 million boxes of kleenex… I’m finally feeling better!
Man.. that was miserable. Seriously. I haven’t been that sick since before Hailey was born. I’m still not back at 100% but… 80ish. That’ll do for me! I’m doing a fairly easy walk on the treadmill today (which is actually where I am updating from at the moment.. smart phones are kinda miraculous!) After this, I intend to do at least some of Yoga X. All this laying around.. and coughing.. and coughing… and coughing… has done my back in. I’m so stiff and sore! I’ve got to get my flexibility back.
And to top it off, I’ve been eating horribly- too sick and tired to cook means lazy food. And I feel just gross.
Well, no more, I say! I feel like I’m coming out of a fog. I’m alive again! I shall work out and cook healthy meals! And not watch 340 minutes of tv in one day. (Yes, I kept track one day… what?) I am fairly pissed that this happened right smack in the middle of doing P90X. So much for those 2 month pictures for now, I guess. Oh well, crap happens.
So.. I’m continuing on. I won’t be back to P90X schedule still for a bit, it is a little too intense for my lungs right now I think. No need to overdo it and get sick all over again. I’m just going to pace myself and work back up to it.
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