Daily Post - Jan 24 2011

Weight –381.6 Creeping ever downward
Mood –Annoyed that it's Monday, burned out from work, worried about hubby's back.
Pain Level -Surprisingly not high today.  Woke up around a 5 but that was due to soreness possibly from doing yoga yesterday. 

Breakfast 

Silk Soy Milk - Light Chocolate, 1.5 cup

Slim Fast 3-2-1 - Milk Chocolate Powder, 1 scoop

Red Grapes - Red Seedless Grapes, 1 cup (151g) 

Snack1

Slim Fast - 3-2-1 Double-Dutch Chocolate Snack Bar, 1 Bar 

Lunch

Slim Fast 3 2 1 - Chocolate Peanut Caramel Meal Bar, 1 bar

Red Grapes - Red Seedless Grapes, 1 cup (151g) 

Snack2

Quaker True Delights - Cafe Squares Raspberry Mocha With Chocolatey Drizzle, 1 bar

Dinner

Chicken Fajita in Crock pot, 2 serving(s)

Meijer - Soft Taco Size Flour Tortilla, 2 Tortilla

Aldi Foods - Happy Farms Finely Shredded Mexican Style Four Cheese, 1/4 cup 

Dessert

Dole - Fruit Crisp - Apple Cinnamon, 1 container 

Drinks -3 liters of water, 2 with crystal-light faux tea and 1 with wal-mart-brand crystal-light knockoff (grape flavor) drink mix stick.

Exercise -10 minutes of standing yoga poses.  Started tinkering with a sitting/laying program for about 5 minutes that I hope to incorporate over the next week or so.

Vitamin taken?  *sigh* Not yet.  Will take soon.

Meds taken? Yes.  But still no BP or muscle relaxer.

This diet stuff is hard work.  Temptation has been high today.  Been worried about hubby's back (he's still having pain and spasms.  I told him to take a day off and rest, it's not like he couldn't have gotten a sub and it's not like he doesn't have time off allotted so does he listen to me? Noooo.. He has to be a typical male and soldier on anyway...*sigh*) Work has had me a bit stressed (what new?) and I still haven't had time to get my nails done.  Bleh. 

Tonight's dinner was crockpot fajitas (Yet another link from the awesome blog "A Year of Slow Cooking") and instead of using beef I used 1.5 pounds of chicken and 1/2 of each of a red, orange, and yellow bell pepper that I'd had from previous weeks and had cut into strips and put in a freezer bag and had in the freezer.  I also added 1/2 of a red onion (I dislike white and yellow onions), and I used chicken broth instead of water.  I made my own seasoning mix from paprika, garlic powder, cumin, and black pepper.  I refuse to use pre-made seasoning mixes because they are WAY too high in sodium. I have a really awesome spice cabinet with LOTS of spices and I make my own salt-free blends.  If you're not like me and can handle some heat, throw in some hotter spices like Cayenne pepper or crushed red pepper.  Me? I can barely handle mild salsa, so I'll pass.

The biggest problem with making crockpot fajitas is that you almost always end up with too much liquid.  To solve this little problem, I cleaned up my wok (which is kind of my all-purpose sautee and frying pan since we don't have many pans) and dumped the contents of the crock into the pan and simmered it on high heat until all the liquid cooked away.  It was a bit more work, but it was better than wasting food.  I measured 1/4th cup of cheese and used two of the soft-taco sized tortillas (too small!) but even after that I'm still hungry.  This is annoying.  I haven't actually eaten today's dessert yet and I'm considering eating it after I make this post.  Hopefully that and more water will shut my stomach up.

I'm liking the yoga app I have on my iPhone, though I had some issues with getting my own music to play on it.  I think I'm going to do a bit more tweaking with the programs I'm making but I think by next Monday I should have a good routine going.  My hope is that by the end of February, I'll be doing 10 minutes in the morning and 15-20 minutes in the evening.  Standing poses in the morning to get the blood flowing and sitting/laying poses in the evening to calm my butt down.  Though I need to remember that when I'm doing the evening routine I need to find a way to occupy Ranger so he doesn't sit on my iphone and block my view of the pose routine.  (goofy dog.)

Tomorrow is my typical Tuesday day off of work.  I WILL get my nails done tomorrow dangit!

Daily Post - Jan 23 2011

Weight –382.2 Whoo! Progress

Mood –Worried mostly.  See day description for more details

Pain Level -started okay at a 4, stayed there most of the day except for a slight spike to a 6 when making Dinner.  It's slowly coming back down.

Breakfast –
Del Monte - Mandarin Orange Slices in Light Syrup, 1 container
Slim Fast 3-2-1 - Milk Chocolate Powder, 1 scoop
Silk Soy Milk - Light Chocolate, 1.5 cup 

Snack1 -
Del Monte - Mandarin Orange Slices In Light Syrup, 1 container 

Lunch -
Slim Fast 3 2 1 - Chocolate Peanut Caramel Meal Bar, 1 bar
Red Grapes - Red Seedless Grapes, 1 cup (151g)

Snack2 -
Slim Fast - 3-2-1 Double-Dutch Chocolate Snack Bar, 1 Bar
 
Dinner -
Shepherd's Pie, 3 serving(s) (*insert sigh of frustration here*)

Dessert – None today since I ate way too much at Dinner
 
Drinks -2 liters of crystal lite faux tea

Exercise -7 minutes of yoga (standing stretch poses only), 90 minutes of walking around while I was doing grocery shopping.  (That counts doesn't it?)

Vitamin taken? Damnit.  I guess I'll go take it once I'm done with this post.

Meds taken? Yes, except for the ones I haven't gotten yet (BP refill and muscle relaxer)

Today was a stressful day.  Got up earlier than yesterday but by the time I was up and trying to move, my husband had somehow wrenched his back and was dealing with a muscle strain.  He's been laying down on the couch all day since due to pain.  Seeing as how I've got Fibro, I'm not going to bitch.  He's getting a taste of what I deal with every goddamn day.  I've been worried though, since a lot of the time it seems that my husband (who is usually in very good health) never has anything wrong so I'm not used to playing nursemaid and I tend to over-fuss.  I'm a worry-wart.  I come by it naturally.

I used my new yoga app to make a 20 minute program and tried to do it.  I got 7 minutes in and my body went "OKAY THAT'S ENOUGH WOMAN."  Was a little disappointed in myself and mentioned as much on FB but my friends were quick to point out that starting slow isn't exactly a bad idea given my health.

I have since tweaked the program down to a 10-minute standing routine designed to get me awake and moving in the morning.  I'll be creating a sitting/laying routine that's about the same length for the evening.

Then there was grocery shopping to be done.  90 minutes of wandering around the store making sure I got everything I needed and didn't over spend.  I consider that exercise.

I was going to get my nails done today since I have a gift-certificate from one of my managers for one of the local nail salons, but with hubby in pain and an 80 pound bundle of black fur and energy left with him, I decided it's probably better to do it another day.  I'll likely go in on Tuesday since it's my day off.

I got home and started dinner.  Shepherds pie which is pretty simple.  Ground Angus beef (which I got as part of a 5 for 19.95 mix/match deal at County Market) with some frozen veggies, (a mix of carrots, green beans, red pepper, and broccoli) tossed in.  Then I mixed in a can of no-salt-added tomato paste from Meijer, some dehydrated onion, paprkia, garlic, black pepper, and dill and let it all mix and heat until the veggies were tender and the meat cooked through.  I then spread the meat/veg mixture into a 9X13 pan, topped it with 1/2C of shredded cheese (I used up the pizza blend we had and used a bit of a Mexican blend. It was a 1/2C all together.) and spread some prepared instant mashed potatoes on top (Roasted Garlic flavor from Aldi)

Then I popped that into a 350 degree F oven for 45 minutes until the potatoes on top were browned and formed a slight crust.

It was very yummy, but one of the higher calorie dishes I make.  It was strictly put up as comfort food for the weekend since I'd had a stressful week overall.  I was really hungry though, and I ate too much. I should have stopped at 2 pieces.  As a consequence, I decided to forgo dessert.  (Another one of those Dole Fruit Crisp things.  Those are GOOD.)

I'm in the process of getting things around for tomorrow.  I've already set out my clothes and will pack my lunch and snacks that I take to work.  I will need to get up early enough to set up the crockpot fajitas, try to do the Yoga thing, and then shower & dress for work. 

Going to try to go to bed semi-early.  I should at least be in bed by 10pm.  We'll see how well this goes.  I need to make sure the husbandly one is all right in the bed before I'll be able to sleep.

Goodnight Interwebs.