Day 7 - Insomniac

Okay, you know, I pledged 31 days of posts, and dammit, I'm gonna do 31 days of posts. So let's pick up where we left off and even if it takes me until next year, I'm doing 31 flippin' posts.

I've had issues with insomnia since I was a kid. I also used to have sleepwalking issues, but thankfully I outgrew that before I got too big to handle. One time my sister caught me trying to get out of the house and when she asked me what I was doing, I said I was going to get the dog out of the box. Well then.

I can go a while without having too much insomnia, but when it does hit me, it's a mess. And unfortunately, that's been my life the past month or so. I WAS doing fine. In bed by 11, asleep by midnight, up by 8. It was all good.

But lately...not so much. If I'm asleep before 4am, it's a surprise to me. If I'm out of bed before 11, it's even more of a surprise. Since my schedule is pretty flexible [meaning: I don't actually have one], this isn't truly a huge deal. Except, you know, it is. When my sleep is all weird like that, I can't seem to make myself do much the rest of the day. I'm truly more of a night owl than anything else, but I do notice a huge change in my productivity levels when I sleep from midnight until 8 than when I sleep from 4 to 11.

Last night was pretty much the worst it's been, though. I tried! I took a melatonin, I got in bed by midnight, I really tried to sleep. But things keep making it impossible. My boyfriend was BLASTING some music in his office and it sounded like the symphony was right there in the bedroom. The cat patted my back just as I was dozing off, jerking me out sleep because I was pretty sure it was monsters. When I did finally fall asleep, somehow in my dream, Chevy Chase was yelling "IT'S THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. THE OL' MISS. THE MIGHTY MISS-IS-SIP!" over and over until I woke up. For whatever reason, it scared me, which is stupid. I really like the movie Vacation.

So after tossing, turning, and watching the Footloose remake [Kenny Wormald, you will never be Kevin Bacon], I decided to get up. Took a Zegerid for the acid reflux I've been having again lately, waited an hour, took off my glitter nail polish disaster, waved a wet towel around the room trying to get rid of the smell before Don woke up and started complaining about nail polish remover, turned on my fan to high, scared the cat because seriously? Who waves a wet towel around at 6am? And then it was breakfast time.

I thought I'd just make a couple of eggs, but I discovered some extra zucchini that I had leftover from when I made the yakitori. So I diced one up, along with some mushroom, and decided to make a fritatta.





Also, I figured the smell of cooking zucchini and mushrooms might help the nail polish remover smell. I don't care about the smell myself, but someone has a delicate baby nose and he can't handle any smell that isn't cookies or tacos.

After I poured the egg into the vegetables, along with a little bit of diced ham and shredded cheese, I decided that I didn't feel like making a fritatta, which involves baking, and I'd just make an omelet. But well, then it just ended up being a scramble because you know what? I maybe got 3 hours of sleep and I don't care what society says about my eggs.





Do you like my extra fancy paper plate?

I popped all the ingredients into My Fitness Pal just out of curiosity and got this as a result:





Yes, I do try to always use real butter. I realize that it's higher in calories than a light margarine, but have you ever actually looked at the ingredients in those "light" spreads? There are 14 ingredients in Blue Bonnet light margarine to make it 50 calories a tablespoon. There are 2 ingredients in butter: cream and salt. Personally, I feel better about butter. I could have left out the ham and cheese, too, but I have read a lot of things that say it's okay to have a big breakfast to get your day started. Of course, there are probably as many things that say if you don't start your day with one strawberry and a cup of black coffee, you're doomed to a life of being superfat, but I tend not to believe those. Also, at my weight, my calorie goal for weight loss is almost 1900 calories a day. So for ME, this breakfast is awesome. For you, you might need to take it down a notch. Of course, if you work out, the calories in this will be probably be burned off in an hour.

Speaking of working out, I'm going to attempt the gym today. I'm thinking maybe if I really wear myself out today, I can sleep tonight. Here's hoping!

Day..Whoops.

Okay, so I kinda suck at this whole update every day thing. But considering I'm not actually sure if anyone is reading this, I guess it doesn't matter. :)

There are some weeks where my motivation is super high. I can power through any workout, eat well, sleep well, etc. But there are other weeks when my brain is saying, "Yes. DO THIS. You must!" And my body says, "LOLNOPE."

Because when you're superfat, sometimes your body makes the decisions for you. My brain might say, "GO GO GO!" but my legs say, "Naw gurl. Ain't happenin'." It's not a mind over matter thing. Your legs HONESTLY cannot go. Your feet hurt. Your arms feel heavy even without holding a weight. To push yourself means risking an injury because you know your form will be totally off.

It's been one of those weeks for me.

But, I know it won't last forever.

I tried out a new recipe yesterday - the chicken and zucchini yakitori from Skinnytaste. It was DELICIOUS.





I used rice wine vinegar in place of the sake because I don't drink and it would have been kind of worthless for me to buy a bottle of sake just to use 2 tablespoons of it. I also squirted in some sriracha because I love sweet and spicy. I had a couple of pounds of chicken thighs, so I doubled the recipe for the sauce. I also skewered in some baby bella mushrooms because those are my faves. I think I could have eaten every single skewer!! It was a party in my mouth and I didn't want to invite anyone because I wanted everything for myself. Even my boyfriend seemed to like them, and he is super picky!

We'll see what tomorrow brings. I don't want to make big claims of going to the gym and all that because I'm not sure how I'll feel tomorrow. But we can always hope, right? :)

Weekends

Weekends are usually harder to keep to any kind of diet. Is it like that for everyone?  Of course, I think of Saturdays as my "cheat days" because I think everyone deserves a chance to eat something very delicious without feeling guilty once in a while.

This time, I did end up tracking my food, the good & the bad, just because I need to be in the habit of doing that.  I ate at lunch with my parents like I normally would, and WOW. The calories were HUGE.  I didn't even feel like I ate that much, but it was what I ate that really put me into "Who do you think you are, Michael Phelps?" range.  Okay, not that bad, but near enough.  The even worse part is that I know that there have been days - weeks - months - where almost every meal has been that crazy calorie filled.  Even if I wasn't eating a lot, and there have been many many times when I thought I was doing okay because I wasn't cramming much food in, I know what I was eating was bad for me.

I'm heading to the doctor this week to get a bit of a check up. Mostly I'm curious to be weighed.  I know, right? Who WANTS to be weighed?  But our scale is very inconsistent lately.  I'll step on it once and get my weight, then step on it again and it'll be 10 pounds lower.  Um, yeah...no.  As nice as that looks, I really really need a real reading.  And a better scale!

Extra Picky

One thing about the FHP household is that we tend to change eating habits on a dime. It's probably not the best way to go about things, but that's just how we roll.

After a month of me trying to incorporate more veggies, fruits, and whole grains - and less red meat - into the eating plan, my adorable boyfriend (bless his heart) decided to go on his version of a low carb diet.

What can you do, right?

I can't be MAD exactly, because we gave it a month and he didn't like anything I made, despite the fact that I'm not a terrible cook.  And he IS cutting sugar from his diet, which is what he needs to do right now. I just kind of feel like my time was a bit wasted.  I know I shouldn't feel that way since I've gotten a chance to eat things that we normally don't eat. But yeah...can't help but be a little put out.

But, you have to learn to roll with the punches and decide what works and what doesn't.  Obviously, what we were doing wasn't working for him.  In some ways, it wasn't working for me either because I felt really angry all of the time about dinner.  Like, ridiculously angry!  Anger and stress are like diet killers, so it's not good for me to feel that way.

The problem now is that he's doing his diet thing, and I can't (and won't) eat what he's eating all of the time. His version of a low carb diet doesn't include a lot of variety, or fruits and vegetables.  I need to now look up a lot of good, healthy, low carb recipes for us.  I don't want to eat a lot of red meat because I've felt better since we've kept our red meat meals down to about twice a week.  I don't want to eat a lot of fatty meat, although he will say it's necessary to eat fat. (It is, but the right kinds, you know.)  And I definitely want to keep adding more veggies into our meals because that's really really important to me.

Now if HE will go along with this.... I guess that remains to be seen.

All Hail Kale!

I've heard about a billion and one good things about kale chips in the past year. Kale, being a leafy green veggie, is pretty much a nutrient filled rockstar in the veggie world.  I mean, check out some of what kale can offer you!  Vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids), vitamin C, vitamin K, and manganese. It is a very good source of copper, tryptophan, calcium, vitamin B6, and potassium; and a good source of iron, magnesium, vitamin E, vitamin B2, protein, vitamin B1, folate, phosphorous, and vitamin B3. It's also said to be an anti-inflammatory! With alllll that good stuff, how could I not try it?  


I'll admit, I'm not all that huge on a lot of leafy greens.  Different lettuces and spinach is about as leafy green as I get.  But they're so so good for you, and I figured, hey, why not?  Kale isn't terribly expensive and all the recipes for kale chips I've seen were terribly easy. 


Oh, after you buy your kale, be sure to put it in the fridge.  I didn't know you had to if you wanted it to not get a little wilty.  Next time!


So to make kale chips....


Preheat your oven to 275F.


Wash and DRY your kale thoroughly.  It's really important you dry it!!  


Tear bite sized pieces off the big stem.  You don't want the big stem.  I mean, I guess you COULD eat it later, but I have a feeling it won't be all that great since pretty much every kale recipe I've ever seen says to just toss that sucker.


Line a baking pan with foil (or parchment paper.  Or nothing if you like to bareback it. Woot!)  My pan ended up looking like this:

Toss the leaves in olive oil.  I only used maybe a teaspoon of oil which MIGHT have been too little.  And then sprinkle with salt.  I have been using sea salt for cooking lately and I like it a lot.  I'd REALLY like to get some of that Himalayan pink salt but with it being like $7 for a little package, Morton's salt is going to have to do it for me.

Pop the kale in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, giving the chips a little toss maybe about halfway through.  WATCH THE CHIPS.  It's very easy to burn and you don't want burnt chips!!  You want them light and crispy.  

They will be a little smaller when they come out.  Kinda like Shrinky Dinks!

The verdict?

Well, surprisingly good!  They were definitely crispy.  They ARE very light but it's kind of like very thin cut potato chips.  But I won't lie.  After eating a couple, I thought, "This must be what eating leaves off the tree in autumn must be like."

I made another bowl of yesterday's rice salad for my dinner tonight and I ended up crumbling some kale chips in the bowl.  It was a great addition to the meal!

Next time, I think I'll toss them with a little more olive oil and perhaps use garlic salt on them.  One of my facebook friends was making sriracha salt (kosher salt mixed with a some sriracha sauce spread out on a cookie sheet to dry for a few days) and I think I may make a little batch to sprinkle some on some chips.  It's always great to find a new healthy snack!

Thanks, Sriracha!

Do you love Sriracha sauce? I'll admit, I use it a little more than I should. A little squirt into taco meat. A little squirt into spaghetti sauce. Yum!  I'd be dirty and make a joke about "cock sauce" right now, but once in a while you just have to take the high road.

Last night as I was looking around for dinner ideas, I came across a soy glazed chicken and rice salad dinner plan.  It sounded pretty good, but I knew I'd want to change things up a little.

Btw, if you expect exact measurements in any recipes I show, you'll be disappointed. I deal in splashes and dabs, not in grams and fluid ounces.

I used the French rice salad recipe that I found on the Food With Kid Appeal blog.  The blog, unfortunately, hasn't been updated since September of last year, but there are plenty of decent recipes there.

If you're using a whole grain brown rice, get your rice started now. It takes a good 30-45 minutes to get it done. Once it's done, put it in a strainer and run cold water over it because the salad should be at least just room temperature. I think I ended up with about 5 cups of rice, so I took 3 cups out and saved the remaining rice to eat later as a snack.  Brown rice is terrifically chewy and has a nutty flavor, so it makes a great warm snack if you microwave it a bit, then splash in some milk and drizzle a little honey over it.

To my rice, I added in 1 diced tomato, 1 diced avocado, half a can of corn, and half a chopped green onion.  In a bowl, whisk together some red wine vinegar (or balsamic or apple cider. Just whatever you have on hand.), a bit of olive oil, a squirt of sriracha, and a little salt and pepper.  Then dump it over the rice, mix it up, and taste it.  Good, right??  If it's done before your chicken is done, pop it in the fridge.  This is also a great recipe for the vegetarians in your life! This is what mine looked like.

For the chicken:

I used chicken thighs for this mostly because they were on sale and I couldn't find just a pack of legs, which was what I wanted to use.  You gotta roll with the punches.  Of course, if you want to be totally healthy, you can use your boneless skinless chicken breasts.

Preheat your oven to 375F. (If using the breasts [dirty!] then preheat to 350F).  In a bowl, put in some low sodium soy sauce, sriracha, honey, and garlic powder.  You'll need at least enough to coat your pieces of chicken.  If you like more spice, put more sriracha.  If you like more of a sweet taste with your spice, add in more honey.  It's really kind of up to you.  I LOVE honey and sriracha together as a marinade so I tend to go a little heavier on these.

If you're doing bone in chicken pieces like I did, it will take about 45 minutes to bake.  Boneless chicken would probably only take about 20-30 minutes.  If you wanted to and you're good at it, you could pop the chicken on the grill.  I never seem to be able to get chicken on the grill done properly, so the oven was my best bet.  About 30 minutes in, if you want, you can baste the chicken with a little more of the marinade.

I didn't get a pic of the chicken when it came out because I suck, but it had a lovely coating and was totally delish!

My mouth is totally happy with tonight's meal. The boyfriend called the rice salad "edible, but it's not tacos." Oh well. Baby steps!

And somewhere to go to laugh:  The Oatmeal: Dear Sriracha Rooster Sauce

Some Days...

Today was supposed to be a grocery shopping day.  I like to have a basic meal plan for the week when I head out to the stores because otherwise I'm just wandering around thinking "Well...that might work."  As a wise man once told me regarding dieting, "Fail to plan? Plan to fail."

Of course, I didn't think about planning meals for the week until last night after I had taken my melatonin, so nothing came to mind.  That's okay, I told myself.  I will just do it in the morning.

Let me just say right now that I am not now, nor have I ever been, a morning person.

Meal planning is probably better if you enjoy cooking and/or have people who like everything you make living in the house.  Since that's not the case here in the FHP household, I have to take to Google to attempt to find ideas that won't make me cry.

One site that I've found that's pretty helpful is Food On The Table.  Food On The Table finds sales at some of your local grocery stores, helps you find meals to prepare, and gives you a detailed grocery list to take shopping with you based on what you chose.  It IS a subscription based site if you want to take advantage of all the goodies, but if you just need a little help (or you're broke!), you can get 3 meals and your grocery list for free.  The FOTT blog is also a major help because every Monday, there is a meal planner for the week!  It's all pretty much normal, mostly healthy stuff, too. Nothing too fancy pants, which is awesome.

Sigh. I guess I should get back to planning.  Tomorrow IS a grocery day!

The start

It started in April.

Well, it started long before that, but we'll say it started in April.

My boyfriend started on some blood pressure medicine, and I noticed that my knee was really starting to hurt. Oh, I knew we were overweight. I'm not blind.  I knew that we'd both blown past being simply "chubby" a while ago and now we're firmly into the "fat" category.  In fact, I am probably in what my favorite "fluffy" comedian Gabriel Iglesias calls the "DAAAMN!" category.

I decided that it was time to do something about this.  Only, what to do?

Diet, of course, would be the major part.  But what diet? We'd both done Atkins before, with some moderate success, but even though I felt amazing by cutting white sugar and bread out of my life, I did not enjoy plowing face first into a birthday cake (Okay, I kinda did enjoy it) and then not being able to really get myself back on track.  I'd attempted South Beach, but it only lasted about a week.  Slim-Fast didn't do squat for me because I like to chew.  Weight Watchers was pretty decent, but I quit because I was taking a medication that caused weight gain and I felt like an ass going to meetings every week and gaining.

But it couldn't be THAT hard to just do what I knew to be good. More vegetables, less red meat, smaller portions.  Couldn't be simpler, am I right?

Nope. Wrong!

I didn't take a couple of things into account.  One, I'm not THAT great of a cook when it comes to healthy stuff.  Being both Texan and Latina is a handicap because I like very rich, heavy food.  I'm great at making comfort food!  And then, two?  My boyfriend really doesn't like vegetables!!

As much as I love recipe sites and blogs, none of them have really told me what to do with a picky eater.  Plus, a lot of them act like dinner time is an episode of Chopped with all kinds of weird ingredients I wouldn't know on sight, much less know what to do with.  I feel, a lot of the time, that I'm flying blind in the world of healthy eating.

So what is this blog about?  Food.  Being fat.  Being picky. Being hungry. There will be cursing. There will be bitching.  There will be pictures and recipes that usually won't have more than 5 or 6 fairly simple ingredients.

But more importantly, there will be hope and progress. And in the end?  There will be health.