Sunday, July 27, 2008

Updates from the Kitchen and Gym...

I decided today that I was not going to sit around. I had been given permission to walk, and so I decided to hop up on the treadmill. I put Life of Brian in the VCR (man is the picture quality sucky) and decided to do a half an hour, which is still about 15 minutes less than the aerobics I was doing. I started out VERY slowly, and built up to a speed of about 2.4--I didn't want to go too fast because I was concerned about the knee. After 20 minutes or so, I had to slow it back down because my knee was really starting to hurt. But I did last the full 30 minutes and walked over a mile in that time, so I was pleased. I'll be doing that this week instead of worrying about not doing anything at all.

In signs that something is happening, I went to put on a shirt today and instead of the usual pulling on of the shirt, it literally slid right down over me like something out of a commercial for fabric softener. I never wear tight clothing, but usually there is some sort of adjusting or pulling down of the shirt. Not today. It just slid right on. I was like, "AWESOME!"

We continue to cook and find new things to appreciate in the kitchen. This weekend, I made the pumpkin apple bread out of one of the WW cookbooks. I know it's a fall food, but I really wanted something seriously sweet, and I wasn't going to settle for anything less. Unfortunately for me, this is not seriously sweet. It was actually kind of bland. It was very good, but not what I was expecting after a life time of apple breads, banana breads, etc. I will definitely kick up the amount of pie spice I put in there next time, since I could barely taste any, and I will try a different kind of apple. Still, it was a quick and easy bread to make and only 3 points per very ample slice.

Tonight I'm going to prepare a black bean, corn, and rice salad, since Lauren got me all hot and bothered with hers at our last book club meeting. The rice is sitting in my fridge cooling as I type. I hope I like brown rice. I'm a little ambivalent based on the taste test I had while determining if it was cooked or not.

We also discovered another variety of V8 juice that the General loves. It's a mixed berry type and he can't get enough of it. He told me this evening that he would drink the whole entire bottle if he could, but he didn't think it would be wise.

I won a bento box off Ebay and it arrived this past week. It's so cute, red with a little white bunny, pink flowers, and butterflies. I almost don't want to use it. If you've visited any bento sites, you'll see how detailed and lovely they get when they are filled. I assure you, I'm not making anything photography-worthy. But it will be nice to have this little box filled with my lunch and I'm hoping it will end my what-to-do-for-lunch-on-the-road conundrum. I've got a second box and some accoutrements arriving this week hopefully from a store in San Francisco, and hopefully with that I can start bentoing away. But I don't see myself getting up at 4am to lovingly slice miniscule pieces of red pepper and arrange them just so in order to create a perfect replica of the Mona Lisa in a box. Call me crazy.

We found out that our good friends Tim and Cheryl up in Boston have started WW this week. They are both visually impaired so we're going to be looking at the WW site to see if it's accessible. I did get kinda pissed off when Cheryl told me that she got some of the books in Braille from WW, but they didn't give them the entire equivalent of what's in the print books. When she called to complain, they informed her that they'd given her what was mandated to be provided. I call that capital B, capital S bullshit. Granted, Braille is bulky and can be costly to produce, but that's not her problem, that's theirs. Nice, WW, real nice. Anyway, it was so fun to talk to them about being on the program and swap tips and so forth. Michael's going to be staying with them in a couple weeks when he goes to Boston, lucky bum, but I am staying here. The four of us used to go out together, and Michael would have my arm, Tim would have Michael's arm, and Cheryl would have Tim's arm. Once we went out like that and it was pouring rain and they had on yellow rainslickers and I dubbed us The Puddle Duck Brigade. Good times, I miss them so much and hope they will come to DC sometime soon.

I guess that's about all. Dinner is over and I have 12 points left, so I'm going to allow myself some PB cups tonight, which is what I've been seriously dying for. I'm going to have them with my one serving that is left of Ben & Jerry's light chocolate brownie frozen yogurt--so good you'll never believe it's only 3 points.

And that's about it! Hope everyone else is having a good week. I've got my fingers crossed for my fellow weighers-in as their days approach!!! Let's see if we can break 200 collective pounds sometime by the end of September. :)

2 comments:

Seraphim9 said...

I've been looking at Willow's Bento Box and other bento sites. I even looked at the boxes and accessories at the Ichiban Kan website (such cute bento boxes and reasonable prices - too bad the ones I really loved were out of stock!!).

I just don't know - as you said, I don't see myself getting up at 5:00 a.m. just to cook lunch and I just don't have enough forethought in the evenings to do something.

So, I guess I'll just stick to my favorite style of bento box: It's cardboard, and has this cute design in the shape of letters that spell out either "Lean Cuisine" or "Weight Wathers Smart Ones". LOL!

Although, the couscous and lentils looked pretty good. I got some whole wheat couscous and lentils at the store last night, and also some stuff to make Orzo and Vegetables (a recipe I came across this weekend). So those should be some different things to look forward to!

Lauren said...

LOLing at Sera's bento box. :D

I've just been going to Safeway *every day* to get a salad for lunch. BORing! I load it up with greens/spinach, broccoli, cucumbers, and just a tiny bit of cheese and bacon. Enough to give me the flavor, but not enough to be too many points (in my mind). And just using balsamic vinegar as a dressing--0 points.

I made the same black bean salad with quinoa this week (it'll be featured on Wednesday), and it turned out pretty good. I wish it had a bit more spice to it, but that's not the fault of the quinoa--which has a tiny bit of crunch to it. I think you'll like it with the brown rice. We've found that brown rice needs to cook longer, but it's good especially if you have sauces.