Ready to Pluck some Tailfeathers

Every morning this week, I have been awaked by the sound of a bird singing.  It's not on my iPhone and it's not on my alarm clock.  It is a real bird, who, every morning at 6:00, perches himself (herself?) somewhere on my front porch and commences to sing a little three-note diddy - at maximum volume - repetitively.  It wakes me up, wakes my husband up, and more importantly, wakes our 2 year old up - and this is one week that we have been sleeping in - or at least trying to.  This bird is walking on the proverbial thin ice. 

Watch it, birdie!  You woke up the wrong mama!

Spoke Too Soon

I found a bad one.  Lunch today is/was Kashi's Chicken Florentine.

This...

...is really really icky. 

Endeavoring

The Free Dictionary defines endeavoring as "A conscientious or concerted effort toward an end; an earnest attempt".  Well then, I am still endeavoring to lose weight.  As I have said before on this blog, I am a sucker.  Show me a commercial and I'll usually decide that I need it.  Whatever IT is. 

Jack Lalane's juicer?  Check!  Got it at Bed Bath and Beyond with a 20% off coupon.  I use it regulary to make juice for my little sidekick - it is one of the few ways I can get vegetables down him.

Space Saver Bags?  Check!  Bought them at Target.  Used them to compact and store pillows, blankets, and quilts.  Half of them lost their seal and fluffed right back up.

Giant ZipLoc bags?  Check!  Bought them after the Space Saver Bags failed.  Now I put it in a giant ZipLoc bag, fold it up, and sit on it to get all the air out while fumbling with the ziploc portion to close the bag.  They have, however, been a success.

The latest thing that got my attention?  Jenny Craig.  Because, after all, if people on tv can do it, I can too, right?  *crickets chirping* I said, Right???    After reading their website I was even further enamored with the idea of signing up, eating what someone told me too, and waking up ten weeks later with twenty fewer pounds.  Unfortunately, the independent reviews I read took the sparkle off the stone.  One of my favorite recipe sites is http://www.epicurious.com/.  It ranks right up there with http://www.allrecipes.com/.  They had a great review of several diet options out there including Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem.  At the end of the review, they sat down and looked at (and tasted) some of the frozen meal options available from the grocery store, and gave the highest ratings to Kashi.  So, rather than fork over a bunch of money to Jenny Craig and settle for some crappy food, I decided to try some things on my own.

Breakfast has taken some ideas from Hungry Girl's 200 under 200 cookbook.  Have you heard of this?  I borrowed it from a friend and love having some things to eat for breakfast that are super easy, not eggs, and are low on calories.  My recent adaptation has been half a toasted whole grain English muffin (75 calories) with one ounce of fat free cream cheese (30 calories), a teaspoon of avocado (no idea how many calories), and three slices of roma tomato with salt and pepper.  I love this!  It feels so indulgent with all of that cream cheese (one ounce is a lot on half a muffin!). 

For lunch, I have been having a Kashi frozen meal.  These are so freaking good, 300 calories or less, full of protein, and a hefty serving of fiber.  Sorry, don't mean to sound like a commercial, but I'm really impressed. 

Lunch today was the Pesto Pasta Primavera - soooo good and pesto-y, the pasta was al dente, the peas were fresh and popped when you bit them. I'll be having more of these for lunch. 

My downfall so far, though, is dinner.  That's tough.  My goal is salads for dinner this week - we'll see what happens.

What are your favorite foods that don't break the calorie bank?

The Itchies

Last week was the opening of dove hunting here in Texas, and the company I work for hosted a dove hunt on opening day at the company ranch.  Sounds fancy, huh?  It was hot...really hot...the kind of still hot that comes right before a bunch of thunderstorms.  I grabbed one of the girls from the office and, like a good friend, begged and pleaded until she finally relented and got her to go out there with me.  We were the only two women shooters.

Despite the heat, things appeared to be going well.  The vehicle was well equipped with guns, shells, water, and snack (all the important stuff).  We grabbed our gear and found a little spot by a water hole and waited.

Nice vest, huh?

Double checking the action to make sure it wasn't sticky.

All went well.  We waited. We sweated.  We shot.  We killed a few birds.  We ate dinner courtesy of a chuck wagon gang.  We went home tired, happy, and wet from the thunderstorms that eventually blew through.

The next day red spots started appearing on us.  That evening, we itched.  And we have been itching for over a week now.  The reason?  These.

That's a chigger - under a microscope.

Apparently where we were, there were hundreds of these - and they found us. 

Damn.

Because nothing says sexy like...

Fire Retardant Clothing.  The company I work for is having to comply with OSHA standards which means we all have to wear our FRC when on location.  Lovely, no?

The Boys Rest

This was taken a while back when both of my guys weren't feeling very well.  It makes me all mushy to see such sweetness.

Meds

Hubster has been fighting an acute sinus infection for several months now.  He's on another antibiotic again and can hardly sleep due to the drainage at night that wakes him up coughing.  On the way into work this morning, I was mentally reaching for anything that might help him.  He does the netti pot, but that seems to make the drainage worse.  He has a nose spray that helps a little.  But what kept popping up in my mind and nagging at me is the fact that he's on a high dose of cholesterol medicine (has been for a year) and is several months late in getting his blood work done to see if he can go on a lower dose. 

I googled his med (Lescol XL) this morning and found that it has a rare side effect (3%-5%) of causing acute sinus infections (sinusitis).  That's exactly what he has!  To the point where he had to go to the hospital for it one night.  He's also subsequently been put on blood pressure medication. I'm really wondering if this cholesterol med has taken a toll on his system and is causing these other issues.  His cholesterol doctor has seemed pretty open to some of the odd side effects he has had on the other cholesterol meds, so I'm hoping that she'll be open to the possibility that Lescol may be causing these other issues. 

Prescription meds can really be a damned if you do and damned if you don't kind of thing.  And that's frustrating.

How to eat a popsicle

Sometimes Popsicles are best when licked off the table.

And sometimes they're best when sucked off your t-shirt.

My Office Anomaly

I should name this plant that I have in my office.  It's too ugly to really like but having had it for so long, it's become kind of a conversation piece.  People stop in my doorway and say "What is THAT?"  Maybe I should name it That Plant....T.P. 

Sorry - have to specificy - That Plant shares a pot with a ponytail plant.  I don't think the ponytail plant is too happy with me.

Those look like roots close up - I wonder if it was outside if it would take root wherever it hit the ground.

In Focus

I'm about 12 pounds heavier right now than I was before I got pregnant with K-man.  I can look in the mirror in the morning, know I need to lose the rest of this weight, but be relatively content with how I look for work.  Make-up is pretty good, hair is brushed and flat iron (or curly depending on the day), business casual clothes for work that work with my figure, and my 36-D boobs are covered (even if means perpetually tugging at my camisole for the day).  Every now and then I'll snap a photo of me with either hubby or K-man and if I hold my head just right and don't get a full-on body shot, I'm okay with how I look.  This past weekend we had a family reunion and thanks to F@cebook and a camera happy cousin, there's a photo of me posted along with the rest of the family.  And...I'm frickin' ugly.  My face was puffy, my double chin was hanging out and cat-calling to anyone who would listen, and that blue halter top that looked cute on in the mirror looked like a circus freak in the photo.  I can't give any feedback on my stomach because thankfully I was holding something in front of me while talking to my mother.  Right now, my self esteem took a nose dive into the sh!tter.

I've been working out since the beginning of April.  I've lost a little weight but seen more results in my body shape (lost 3" off my waist).  And now?  I'm wondering why the hell I even try.  Stupid camera.