My Year in Review!

Alright, here's the deal. This past year has been great in some respects and not so great in others. Rather than dwelling on the things that I can't help, let's look at the things I can control.

2011 Successes!

• I started bike commuting!
• I started biking for fun too!
• Related to the above, I lost nearly 30 pounds!
• I started the MeYou Health Daily Challenge
• I started designing again.
• I started quilting again.
• I told my best friend that I love him for challenging me artistically.
• I successfully stopped taking my OCD meds.
• I started eating better.

2011 Epic Fails!

• I never replaced bike commuting with anything else when I stopped bike commuting because it started getting dark early.
• I still haven't gotten the studio organized.
• I didn't post on either blog regularly.
• I got lazy and stopped doing the Daily Challenge
• I only finished one of the quilts I started.
• I didn't do any work towards getting the art studio open.
• I got sloppy about eating as my work schedule starting getting more hectic and I got less active.

So what have we learned? I need to get organized. I still need to find something to replace my bike commute in the winter-time. Mostly, I need to learn to stick with what works (fitness and eating wise), even when something more interesting comes along. I need to get on a schedule and stick to it. Basically, I need to plan better.

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.

Train, Train! Take me on out of this town.

Ok, it's really more like "Take me on out of this self-defeating, half-assed backwards mindset," but what can I say, I'm sort of a Blackfoot fan.

This past year sucked. Say it with me: "2010 sucked!" But, at the risk of turning into a walking cliche, there's been a silver lining in a lot of it.

Sure, my house almost burned down, but I didn't have to finish painting the 3rd floor and we got a kitchen/bathroom remodel.

Sure, I dislocated my knee and was out of work 3 weeks. but I got like a dozen afghans done for charity.

On the downside, is that all of the upheaval and, let's be honest, boredom, has lead to a lot of really, REALLY lousy eating habits.(And a serious Facebook addiction.) For so long, we were forced to eat based on convenience and now it's become our first instinct. We used to relish a chance to cook together, now we don't bother unless it's 3 days till the next check and there's $10 in the bank account.

I made fantastic Chipotle Corn Chowder for dinner the other night, but not because I had a brilliant recipe idea, it was because all I had left in the fridge was frozen corn, a stick of butter and a little milk.

At any rate, I ran into an old friend the other day, and she looked AWESOME! (Good for you, JuneBug!) Turns out, all she's doing different from my fat ass, is that she's actually doing all the things I keep meaning to do. Regular Yoga, eating the way she needs to, and so on. Basically, not being a useless lump after she punches out from work.

WAIT! That's all I need to do? Really? I swear on all that is holy and good, there really is something wrong with me. I can't even get my prescription filled on time. (Which I was gonna do tonight, I swear.)

And then I was sitting and thinking about it, I know I'm lactose intolerant, why do I continue to eat dairy? Why do I say, "well, I could have a little more milk before I have to worry about getting sick"? When I should be saying "I don't normally eat that, but for your birthday, I could have a smidge of Ice Cream."

I know that I can't eat onions. (Migraines) Yet over and over again, I find myself staring at Scallions or Chives saying "if I'm careful not to eat much of it, I'll be fine." When I should be saying "I should just skip this" or "I need to learn to cook this myself, you know, onion free, so I don't risk puking or missing work."

I genuinely love healthy goodies like dried fruit, nuts and seeds. So why don't I eat them?? I have a huge bag of almonds, could I tell you where it even is? Nevermind, when the last time I actually ate some of them.

I love Yoga. It centers me. It makes me feel awesome, spiritually and physically. If I did yoga yesterday, I can almost guarantee I'll do yoga today. Problem is, if life happens and I have to skip a day, it takes me like a week (or sometimes more) to get around to it again. Why??? What's wrong with me?

I could keep whining and say "I have OCD, I can't help it, I fixate on everything that sucks." Let's be honest, I'm on meds for that (which I still need to get refilled) and I know that I train myself to fixate on the good instead of the crap, I've done it in the past.

I'm not happy at work. Things are finally changing for the better, but it all feels like too little too late. So why don't I fixate on the things that do make me happy, you know, the not work stuff. How about yoga and almonds, cuddling with the cat or the fact that after almost 5 years, I'm still glad I married my husband. This isn't rocket science. It's easy stuff.

I need to just keep my eyes on the prize. No more onions, limit dairy to dry cheeses like parmesan and cheddar or things like sheep's milk feta which doesn't upset my stomach. Eat smaller, healthier snacks. Enjoy my food for the flavor, not the quantity. Pack a lunch, have breakfast at home.

Back to the basics! Need to get it right this time. Aside from the fact that I can't keep up with my favorite 4 yr old any more, I need to not look like a moose in the pictures at my sister's upcoming wedding.

Share with me! What have your "get healthy" victories been? Keep me motivated.

I'm not going to track my progress with weight loss. I'm going to track it in pants sizes. I'm also going to pay a visit to a giant staircase not far from our house (90 steps) and time myself climbing up and back down. Every week I'm going to go back and time myself again. I'm going to post the times here to keep myself honest.

Wish me luck.

Flavors.

Made more lipbalm the other night, Honey Almond with a touch of cinnamon. It turned out fantastic!

Then I tried to make Pina Colada. What a mess. The first try, the pineapple turned into a giant gooey blog, and the second try the pineapple powder integrated but I'm really not happy with how the flavor turned out. You can't taste the pineapple over all the coconut. I'm going to have to find a better/different way of flavoring this one.

I'm thinking of looking for a pineapple extract or a pineapple candy flavor and see how that goes.

I don't love my canvas tote as much as you think I do.

So, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Ok, it was like 4 years ago, in NYC, I bought a couple of things at SoHome and they gave my a little unbleached canvas tote instead of a plastic shopping bag. Out of convenience - I loved the size of it - I started carrying it. A lot.

When work changed the dress code, and I had to start wearing dress pants (which if you don't know, means I no longer had pockets), it was fantastic. Just big enough for wallet, keys, cells, and a small craft project.

Well, at any rate, my cheaply made, not meant for daily use tote finally started to give out one me. One of straps finally tore off. Apparently, everyone thought that I adored this little tote bag.

I went up to my sister and she said "I have a couple of canvas totes if you want them." I thought, sure, why not? and took them. Then I was at my mom's and she said, "oh, I have a canvas tote you can have."

I said to her, wow, does everyone think that I love canvas totes or what?

"Well, the strap tore on that little one that you carried all the time, and we felt bad that your favorite bag tore, so we decided to give you ours."

Wow, I never realized that anyone thought I liked that little bag so much. Weird.

Stinging Nettle - Failure due to User Error

So, the stinging nettle is fantastic. Except when I forgot to take it. Duh.

Granola bars - another failure

So the second batch of granola bars is a failure too, but at least it's an edible failure. They're just really sticky. Apparently, in my effort to make sure they'd be sticky enough, I over corrected. I have tasty but messy granola bars.

Granola Bars - 2 bad ideas in one day.

A few weeks back, I picked up a ton of different grains and stuff from the farmers market and a couple of health food stores. I bought amaranth, brown teff, chia, rolled oats and millet, among other things, and we started making our own granola-type bars.

I pop the amaranth, toast the millet on the stove and the oats in the oven, throw the chia in raw and sprinkle the teff on top. I use honey cooked to soft ball stage (about 244 degrees F) to hold it all together and then I press the mixture in a cookie sheet lined with wax paper to a bar-type thickness and then once it's cooled cut it into individual pieces and wrap them with wax paper.

The first batch got a bit sweet, and we learned that we probably shouldn't use blueberry honey anymore. They had Hunza raisins and roasted pumpkin seeds and were kinda chewy.

The next batch we wanted to be a nut bar. So I added crushed raw almonds, pumpkins seeds and roasted, salted sunflower meats and when I sprinkled the teff on, I also sprinkled toasted sesame seeds.

This time around, I wanted to do vanilla, cranberry, almond. So I toasted the stuff that needed toasting, crushed the almonds, popped the amaranth mixed everything together in a bowl. Then for the vanilla part, I used corn syrup flavored with vanilla extract instead of honey.

Apparently, this mixture does not behave the same as honey does, because the bars got very crumbly. I couldn't actually cut them into bars. But I'm thinking, well, we're just crumble it and put it in baggies, no big deal. Except it won't come loose from the wax paper either.

So I threw them out. But that aggravated me because I really wanted cranberry almond granola bars. So I went back out to the kitchen and started over. Toast the millet, pop the amaranth, mix in the chia (oops! poured in way to much, scoop some back out), add the toasted oats, crushed almonds, dried cranberries.

I figure, since I know honey works, we'll use honey. Cook the honey, mix it with the dry ingredients, press it on the cookie sheet.

But I still need vanilla, so I add white chips. I'm fully expecting the chips to melt when I press them in, because the bars were still hot, but it never occured to me that it was too hot to work with white chocolate yesterday. They melted, alright, and never hardened.

So I had to put them in the fridge. I guess I'll find out tomorrow if they actually turned out or not.