So... Wednesday was birthday. But it was more like a birthweek of celebration. And by "celebration" I mean eating and drinking bad stuff. Lots of it.

The downward spiral that started on Saturday has continued throughout the week. I had some delicious pad kee mao ("drunken noodle") with an entire thai iced tea &mdash I'm pretty sure that contained one full can of condensed milk, and who knows how much sugar.

I had my super special dinner at Zest, and tried osso buco for the first time. While it was utterly delicious, as was the mojito that preceded it, and the zin that accompanied it, I'm pretty sure that marrow (yes, MARROW) is not a low fat food. Nor was the chocolate fondue that we had for dessert.

Both of these delicious dinners were also equally delicious and heavy lunches, in the form of leftovers.

I think that all of this "celebrating" is now out of my system. I have been still hitting the gym 5 days a week, but half-heartedly. I'm feeling my lack of veggies and the weight of those rich foods. I'm kinda draggy, and I'm 2.8 lbs heavier.

Luckily, I have absolutely nothing planned for the weekend, except for maybe a haircut and some home-shopping. Little opportunity for indulgence there. For once, I'm happy to be bored.

Posted by Korina at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was a bad, bad girl this past weekend. I won't delve into details, but I will say that it involved homemade macaroni and cheese, beer, Sonic, bacon, and Chinese food (not all at the same time!)

On the upside, I did finally get a Yoga mat, since Denise was kind enough to give me her spare. Now I just have to actually get my butt down to class.

Over and out.

Posted by Korina at 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, here I am, past my week two weigh in, and I'm still on Weight Watchers. But something strange is happening this time... I'm actually sticking to the program and losing weight! Last time I did WW, I wasn't a very dutiful member. I paid and attended meetings, but I didn't really stick to my points... I mean, kind of ought to be close enough! But this time, I'm actually doing it, and it's working! At my first weigh in I was down 5.6 pounds, and the second time I was down 3 pounds. So I only have about a pound and a half to lose to get to my 10 pound goal and buy my new dishes!

Of course, I still have another 25 pounds to lose, but I'll come up with a new goal before I get there. I think one thing that's helping this time is apple slices from Costco. I don't know about you, but I love fruit... as long as someone else cleans and slices it for me! These apples come pre-sliced and packaged so I can pull out a package, eat them all and know it's 1 point. How easy is that!

Linda asked where I go to meetings... I went online to weightwatchers.com and put in my zip code. They give you lists of all the meetings in your vicinity and the times for each meeting. (You don't have to join their site to get to this info.) I chose one back at the same place I went the first time, which is a WW center at 51st Ave. & Cactus. I try to go in the evening, depending on what time I can get away from work. :-)

Have a great day... and eat smart!

Posted by Denise at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It wasn't a total distaster — not a resounding success either.

I made three little pizzas. One for me, one for the kiddo, and one for my friend who was in town on a visit. I think Dillon's looked the tastiest. Of course, his was loaded with salami and Italian sausage:

Mine turned out pretty nicely as well, topped with artichoke hearts, yellow tomatoes, a wee bit of Italian sausage, and easy on the cheese. I also opted for a roasted garlic, herbs, and olive oil base, instead of red sauce:

My main issue was that the dough was so elastic, by the time I was done adding the toppings, it had snapped back to a small, thick, disk. I'd appreciate any bakers chiming in to tell me why this happened and how to prevent it.

Also, it was very difficult to get them on and off my pizza stone. I had to flop them on with my hands, and scrape them off with a spatula. That left a lot of cheese and toppings on the stone, which in turn smoked and burned. Yuck.

Note to self: buy a pizza peel!

Posted by Korina at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Okay... so we did the whole weight loss challenge thing and my total result? I gained three pounds! This is just wrong, and it can't keep going like this! I dropped off Weight Watchers over a year ago, and held my own for a while. But lately, it's just up and up and up. So... now that the challenge is over and Korina has my money, I'm ready to get serious.

Last time I joined WW, I lost 40 pounds, which means I stopped about 20 pounds short of my goal. Since I've gained back 15 pounds, my goal is 35 pounds away. But that's okay, because I've got a short-term goal to look forward to first. A few weeks back, the Westcor Style Panel suggested buying all white dishes so you can coordinate your table settings with any color. I've been wanting white dishes ever since. So I decided that when I lose my first ten pounds I'm buying the dishes!

Weigh in days are Thursdays, so wish me luck!

Posted by Denise at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm the first to admit that I'm not a baker. I mean, I generally don't do anything beyond boxed mixes. I did make those black bean brownies once, with some tweaks. They came out awful! It was probably my tweaks (add a little whole what flour, maybe some instant espresso). I can't NOT fool around with a recipe, which is why I generally stick to cooking. Like mom used to say, "cooking is an art, baking is a science."

Last night, I decided to make some pizza dough so that we could make pizzas at home. Knowing my track record, I followed Alton Brown's recipe to the letter. OK, maybe I wasn't that exact. I don't have a mixer, so I had to use the food processor. I took some cues from Wolfgang Puck's food processor-driven recipe.

I also wanted to make a batch made with part whole wheat flour. But again, I figured I would follow the recipe exactly, at least the first time around.

I should be good to go, right?
Wrong!

Apparently, the little asterisk next to "kosher salt" meant to read the footnote at the end of the recipe – the part where it says to cut down the salt and sugar. D'oh! I read that part as my dough ball was completed, and resting in the fridge.

I checked this morning, and it doesn't look much bigger than it was last night. Maybe my yeast kicked the bucket?! I don't know. We'll see how it turns out tonight.

BTW, today I love my new digital scale! It's shows that I'm down .8 lb.

Posted by Korina at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but I have high cholesterol. Despite all this working out and eating right (or trying to) that I've done over the past few years, that number is still slowly creeping up.

My doc said that it's a good thing I'm doing all this healthy stuff, or it would be a lot worse. Since I'm doing that, my blood pressure is good, my good cholesterol is great, and I can stay off the statins.

Nonetheless, I'm always trying to find ways to get it down. You know, like using olive oil, eating salmon, etc. etc. Well, another thing you're supposed to use is flaxseed oil. I think it has a sort of yucky, bitter taste.

The solution: sneak it in!

Yep, give some seeds a whirl in the coffee grinder, and they can go in just about anything. My favorites so far are steel cut oats (double score with that oat fiber) and pancakes. But recently I discovered another camoflage – hummus! If 4 cloves of garlic, lemon juice, and some red chili flakes can't disguise that flavor, nothing can.

Which brings me to one of my new favorite kitchen tools – the blender. It's a tool of convenience, and deceit. Besides hiding flaxseed in hummus, I've blended cooked sweet potatoes (fiber + beta carotene) for chili, cooked carrots for spaghetti sauce, black beans for brownies (no, really!), and white beans for a thickener.

I've heard that you can whir up some blueberries for your hamburger to make them juicier and healthier, but I haven't tried that one yet. My poor family has been subjected to more health foods than they could imagine.

But I don't feel too guilty about it. My motives are good.

Posted by Korina at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As promised, I used my winnings to get some much-needed running shoes. Now I have what I like to call "the Death Star shoes." That is, if Darth Vader were a runner, he would wear these. They are very black and futuristic, and I wasn't quite sure if I could rock them. But yes, I decided, I am woman enough to rock the black shoes! Check em out:

My cool, and kinda scary, New Balance 8505s.

Notice that while I did (for once) pay full price, and got exactly what I wanted, I didn't fork over the cash for new insoles, opting instead to wash and re-use my old ones.

I have yet to really test them though, since I've got this weird foot pain going on. I've just been doing the recumbent bike and sometimes, the elliptical. We'll see how they hold up when I start running again.

I also got a scale that includes body fat readings. I kinda like it — in that it keeps me in check — and I kinda don't, for obvious reasons.

My to do list for this week:
• Buy a yoga mat, darn it!!

Posted by Korina at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lori tallied up all the stats on her nifty li'l spreadsheet (she is the spreadsheet queen, after all), and it looks like the winner is me! I didn't lose as much as I had hoped, but I guess I lost enough. Woo-hoo!

As I prize, I get the cold, hard cash -- and it's already spent, in my mind. I'm getting new running shoes. I've been putting it off for ages. It can wait no longer. I've dealt with the holes, and the broken-down footbed, and the worn out traction. But now I have a foot injury, and I'm pretty sure I know what the culprit is. I'm going shopping this weekend. YES!

Nobody knows the troubles we've seen.

Over all, I think everyone did an awesome job in this challenge, and if anything, it brought exercise and good eating forward a bit more in our minds. I'm ready for our continued journey down this path toward better health, and I hope that you all will join us!

Posted by Korina at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This morning, I discovered I had lost my keycard -- the keycard that gets me into the gym. What to do!? The final weigh-in is tomorrow, and I should get in a good workout before then.

Just then, my eyes fell upon my fat furry dog, and my restless little dog, and I got a brilliant idea. When I picked up their collars, the jingle of their tags caused them to spring up, and dart to the door. I figured a long walk would do us all some good.

We headed down the street, taking in the cool morning air, tails and ponytail bobbing along. I waved to neighbors I did not know. The dogs sniffed new ground. I even felt inspired to run from time to time.

When we got home, I was definitely due a shower (bonus: working out at home means I get to use my own shower!), the dogs' tongues were lolling out, and we all felt pretty good. This workout is definitely happening at least once a week from now on!

Posted by Korina at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last weekend, I spent a glorious time in Havasu Canyon. If you have never been there, you need to go at least once in your life. I plan on going every year until I die. This was the second year I've gone.

I think the reason I love this place is that there is so much beauty packed into a small space. Not only does this fact make for a delight to the senses, but it means that the visitors are distributed throughout, and not crowded all around. Add that the canyon is difficult to reach, and that it was the off-season, and you get plenty of space and quiet to enjoy the lush greenery, and crystal blue falls. Here's a pic I took of one of the falls:

OK, enough reminiscing! Let's talk about the diet and fitness thing. It is related to my trip, trust me. Being on the road and going on vacation means lots of potential for not-so-good eating. There are ways around it, but I didn't follow them. I ate chips, trail mix, and greasy things.

On the balance, I did LOTS of swimming, hiking, exploring, and rock-scrambling. The state of my feet and legs can attest to that. TIP: a 6 mile hike in Tevas is a bad idea! I came back so blistered and scraped, I could wear nothing on my feet but flip-flops for a week.

My wrecked feet made working out a challenge, but I did it nonetheless. I went through a whole box of Band-Aids bandaging my boo boos and took it easy on the elliptical. I also did a lot more weight training. The result: half a pound heavier on Wednesday's weigh-in. It sounds like a setback, but I like to be optimistic, and think that it could have been a lot worse.

Since then, I have been extra cautious. The final weigh-in is only days away. I was pretty good this past weekend. I made good choices when dining out, skipped dessert, and really limited the alcohol intake.

I'm not overly optimistic about how I'll end up (preliminary weight checks tell me not to be). But I think over all, I will be satisfied, and keep going on this journey. Eventhough the scale has not moved too much, I find my clothes fitting better, things are "shifting" to the right places on my body, and I feel really good at the end of every day. I know it sounds cheesy, but regardless of the numbers, I feel like I have won.

Posted by Korina at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)