Check-in. Healthier Choices.

I've lost nearly a pants size!

We're learning a lot about ourselves through this whole get healthy process. Here's the highlights!

• I feel like a little kid when I'm flying down a hill on my bike!
• If we have Edy's Fruit Bars or Whole Fruit Bars in the freezer, they're nearly always our first choice when we go for a snack.
• The fruit bars have also cut down on Carl's ice cream cravings, while making giving up dairy easier for me.
• Keeping chocolate in the house, but somewhere that's a pain to get to, has cut down on chocolate binges for both of us, and has almost completely eliminated my urges to buy a candy bar at the check-out.
• Pita chips have solved my issue with not being able to substitute crunchy for crispy.
• The 5 mile round trip to work on my bike seems to be what I need to be able to sleep well.
• I have a lot of fun battling traffic on my bike. Although I still walk it across the 22 interchange on my way to work.

All in all, I think that we're making a lot of change for the better and Carl is even starting to make plans for what he's going to do to make up for the fact that he can't really bike to work even if he wanted to.

Check-In. Go figure.

I was up this morning with plenty of time to walk to work. I was keeping an eye on the weather and it seemed like the rain was holding off. I decided that I was going to spend a little more time on the internet and then ride my bike.

I got my bag together and headed out and I think it actually started raining during the time it took for me to walk away from the laptop and out the front door. And it kept raining. The whole time that I was on my way to work.

From the water thrown off the tires, I basically looked like I fell ass first into a puddle. I do take a change of clothes with me, but I was so soaked that my soggy underwear was starting to soak through my dress pants after I changed.

BLarg! Guess I'll be walking some of the days this week.

Check-In. Slacker!

Alright, so I've been really slackerly about posting. For about a week.

Here's the run down.

Eating has been really sloppy, but with a family picnic and the resultant leftovers, that one's tough to avoid. At least with my family.

I've found that in very small quantities, I can tolerate Swiss and Extra Sharp Cheddar cheese relatively well. But it needs to be a very small quantity and I can tell from how my belly feels that I cheated. Honestly, it's worth it every now and then because I'm practically going through withdrawal here. I didn't mind giving up milk, butter or ice cream, but not having cheese has been crazy tough.

I bought a bike on Thursday! I made the potentially stupid decision make my first ride my Trip to Work yesterday and it actually turned out great! I got there in about half the time compared to walking!

I had forgotten how much I love tearing down a great big hill! SO much fun. I also love how much more freedom I feel like I have compared to walking. I can get myself to and from work, without begging rides and I don't have to lose almost 2 hours of my day to do it! Plus, I have wiggle room in my mornings again.

I can tell I'm still not in good enough shape to haul things with me on the bike, but I'm getting places and fending for myself in traffic and it's great. I was surprised to find that while not particularly courteous, drivers in Allentown are much more bike-friendly than people in Whitehall. It's almost like hitting an invisible barrier coming into and out of the city.

I have people in the city waiting for me to finish crossing, waving me ahead of them for left turns, etc. In Whitehall, I got cut off and almost plowed into the side of some guys car yesterday, people ride your butt as if you've a car under the speed limit and so on. Of course, I only rode to and from work once. It could have all been a fluke.

Check-In. Day off.

Was kinda snacky today but I kept it basically to healthy stuff. Sprouts, trail mix, fruit bars, 2 oranges. We had sushi for dinner, I ate probably more than I should have but I stayed away from the spicy rolls, which saved me calories from the mayo at least.

I made homemade ketchup tonight, which makes me really happy. I walked to the health food store and bought more seeds for sprouting, gonna try broccoli and mung beans now. I'll probably do another batch of alfalfa, too, because now that I have the sprouting lids, I can use the lids with any of my tons of extra mason jars laying around.

So far so good, I think I've lost about 1/2 of a pants size so far. My pants are getting saggy in the butt, but I can't fit into a smaller size yet. I'm getting there, though and that makes me feel really good!

Some Like it Hot Ketchup!

I've been wanting to make my own ketchup forever. Okay, since I found out that Robyn and Dan make theirs. Finally got around to it tonight, and true to form, I gave it a kick.

Here's the recipe.

6 oz. can Tomato Paste

2 Tbsp. White Vinegar

2 tsp. Hot Sauce of your choice (I used Poblano, cause it's awesome!)

1 1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder

1/3 cup Water

1 tsp. Agave Syrup

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Heat in a small sauce pot until just hot, adding a bit more water (about 1/4 cup) to bring it all together. This recipe will give you ketchup with enough heat to satisfy the ones in your house that like it hot, without scaring of anyone who prefers mild.

Check-In. Epic Win.

Tofutti Key Lime Pie Frozen Treats! Awesome. Let's not even talk about anything else tonight except how good these are.

Seriously, typing a real post is proving completely impossible because the cat insists on sitting between me and the laptop, but I had to share about the Tofutti Treats.

Check-In. Trail Mix!

Can't even remember what I had for breakfast today, so it can't have been that interesting. It may have been clementines, actually.

Clementines and honey wheat pretzels for lunch (11-7:30 is a tough shift for me, mealwise. It's over two meals.) and a candy bar for a snack.

More egg-spinach-meat sauce in a tortilla for dinner.

Made a ton of trail mix tonight for lunches.

I had a pomegranate fruit bar for a snack so I wouldn't pig out while I was making the trail mix, also.

Sprouts are doing really well, in another couple days we can really harvest them.

Gonna try to get a little more work done in the garden tomorrow night. I should have asparagus this year, if the roots took and held up over the winter. It'll be nice to find out.

If anyone wants any mint, with or without roots, let me know, I've got tons. Spearmint and a chocolate mint hybrid.

Check-In. Sprouts!

I have tiny sprouts in my Alfalfa jar. Actually, I stole one tonight. It was about 1/2" long and it was super tasty! Nothing beats growing it yourself.

Clementines and trail mix for snacks today. Not much of a lunch at work. Had scrambled eggs tops with meat sauce that also had spinach in it for breakfast and the same in a tortilla for a late supper.

Probably will eat like crap tomorrow because I work crappy hours (11-7:30). Gonna try to get over to the steps for our weekly check in tomorrow. Hopefully, I can shave a bit more off my time.

Need to get up a bit early tomorrow. I never changed after work tonight and managed to ruin my last pair of work pants. Oops.

Also, I've discovered that even though I like plain Almond milk, I really don't like the unsweetened vanilla, unless I take the time to sweeten it with agave nectar.