Category: Weight/Exercise

Ever since my “big” events finished and all we had to worry about for the week was entertaining a delegation from Irapuato, I’ve been feeling a little more at ease, a little less stressed-out, thank goodness. It was about time, heh.

That’s given me more time to browse through eBay after I’ve tended to the girls and put them to bed. I recently got lucky on a few auctions. I get the “collecting” bug about once a year, and this is about the time it happened last year, too :P.

I was stalking a seller from California, who seemed to be selling her entire collection of 80’s plushes. She had all the UK Care Bears and the rare UK Popples. I scored the Chef Popple, which I’ve wanted for YEARS, and my very first UK Care Bear: Sea Friend Bear ^_^, both for amazing prices!

I also scored a few Yum Yums. I hardly collected these since they’re always so expensive. I bought the bunny around 2003 or so, then found Peppermint Kitty around 2008ish and hadn’t bought them since. I still kick myself in the butt for not taking the chance to buy Chuckle Chip Bear back during the All-City Garage Sale days, for $4. I didn’t buy him because he was kind of floppy and dirty, but now that I only see him for $40+, I regret not getting him =\. I am thrilled, however, that I found Lucky Lemon Lion and Goody Gumdrops Mouse for under $20 each! I also finally made my Yum Yums their own page after all these years!

I also got some Fluppy Dog hats. I think they’re the Fluppy Puppy hats. I’m confused as to whether those are the hats they came with or you had to buy them separately back then? Who knows. I only got them because they were a steal, heh.

Anyway, I spent time with the girls as much as I could Monday and Tuesday, because Wednesday and Thursday I knew I’d be working late. It isn’t often that I do work late, but the girls fall apart when I do have to, no joke. They did much better this time, but I still can’t help but feel guilty =\.

Alaethia, Emily and Jaylen had Open House at their schools on Tuesday evening. Their dad joined us. First to the girls’ school, where they had great things to say about both. It was a quick visit with Emily’s teacher. We reminisced about how fast time flies since it’s been 2 years since he was Alaethia’s teacher, too.

We went to Jay’s school next and his teachers all had great things to say about him, too. Well, I can’t say “all” because there were a couple we didn’t see. I got to see Norma and we chit-chatted a bit. She told me Jaylen’s math teacher is a little on the mean side and we figured that was why he was having trouble asking about this darn science project he has in his Pre-AP class. But when we started talking with the teacher we joked around with him and got all the info we needed about the project. We did some already, now that he’s on Spring Break, so I’m hoping his father will help with the last few things he’s missing. He says he forgot that part at the house, so we’ll see.

The delegation had 2 gentlemen that had joined us before back in 2012. We took them on the tour back then, too. 3 new gentlemen joined this time.

We had breakfast at the Country Club the first morning (yellow-egg ham & cheese omelets–which I shouldn’t have had =\), where I had to leave abruptly and join Laura at Latina Hope, the program we’re spearheading, along with Eduardo. We were teaching a jewelry-making class and Mrs. Thelma was teaching wreath-making. We joined her class the first session and I have to say, I am in love. Like I need another hobby!

I made this burlap wreath for Dina :). I had originally wanted to make it in the shape of an actual sunflower, but I couldn’t find yellow mesh at all when I went. Must be because of Easter.

I met the group back at the Rotary Club, where there was a very informative presentation about Quinta Mazatlan. We had lunch, then headed to the school district’s Central Office where we had another informative meeting. I love being “in the loop” heh.

We had dinner at House.Wine. after that. I had THEE BEST salmon pasta with garlic caper sauce. I wish I had that recipe!

(I just got hungry again.)

It was a fantastic evening. The live music was great and the men kept us laughing all night with their jokes. They’re so down to earth!

The next morning Jessica helped me get ready for a breakfast I had put together at the Incubator. Koko’s was catering, there was Shipley’s coffee and the breakfast was in the gallery with a few of the artists, the delegation and some of the committee. I’m glad Jessica was there to help me and eat breakfast with me. (Also: hardly anything I ate those 2 days were things on my low-cholesterol menu. Oops.)

We had a tour at the STC medical building, lunch at the Spanish Room with Eduardo, and then a meeting at MEDC. And then we said our goodbyes and my boss and I headed to the office where he needed to finalize some things for a trip they were having the next day and I had work bills to pay. I also had to turn in my absence sheet because I promised the girls I’d take some days off to spend with them during Spring Break. I had been feeling really overwhelmed and stressed about work, I really couldn’t even tell you why, but I really do enjoy what I do ^_^.

We went to Eenan’s Open House next. He was extremely nervous about it, as he ended up with a 33 in his Spanish class. Yes. A 33. I was upset at first, but I kept calm and didn’t explode, especially because I could see just how afraid he was. I also couldn’t be too mad about it because his core-subject teachers spoke the world about him and he had great grades. I applaud him considering he’s also in Pre-AP classes. So we spoke to the Spanish teacher, and him, and hopefully he’ll do better this semester. I’m sure he will :).

We went to his counselor’s office to get access to his grades from home. On the way back home we had a deep conversation about religion and beliefs. About how his dad is an atheist (he has been since we met in high school, although around 2010 when he served me with divorce papers and wanted people’s attention and pity, he was as holy and Catholic as they come, posting verses and whatnot on Facebook, grrr) and it bothers Eenan that he insults people’s beliefs. We talked about our own beliefs. Then we got further into religion and…hypocrites. I’m glad I can have these conversations with them. I hope they can always talk with me freely about anything that’s on their minds.

Jessica and I went to the City Health Fair on Friday morning, after we were done with all our morning work. I wanted a second opinion, I guess you can say, about my cholesterol, but considering my diet the 2 previous days, I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference :(. I did get my BMI done and it says I have 6 lbs. to lose to be at my ideal weight for my height. I’ll take it, ’cause I seriously thought it was more >_<. Dina, Briana and the kids came down to visit starting Friday evening, which means we went into turbo-cleaning mode, heh, and we put up some wall decor we'd been putting off. (And by "we", I mean Jorge :p). [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Wall stuffs ^_^"][/caption]

Javi came over, too, and we all sat around with the kids and spent time together and laughed and used our electronics. It’s always great having them over.

Dina took the boys to the movies on Saturday morning. Of course my teenager chose to stay home LOL. While they were out, Emily and I went to get groceries and then all us girls went to Fantasyland Skate Center for a party Briana had invited us to. Needless to say, the girls were all terrified, poor things. They only went around the rink once and said NO MORE.

We had a good time anyway.

We chilled out the rest of the evening. Once the kiddos had all passed out we enjoyed some wine my love bought for us. It’s some Diva brand, I think, and it was a pineapple-coconut moscato. OMG. It was heaven.

I woke up and made wheat pancakes for everyone.

They were so tasty. I’m so glad there are some leftover, heh.

We spent the day lazying around with the kids and then Dina, Briana and the kids left. We lazied some more and it’s such a relief to know neither the kids nor I have to go anywhere tomorrow. Unfortunately my love works tomorrow :(, but I plan to be a good girl and clean the house and spend time with the kiddos. I’ve been waiting for this downtime all year! 😀

I wish I could say that the title of this post means that I’ve been working out hardcore to get ready for the annual banquet, but it’s actually quite the opposite.

Albert Einstein once said that “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. That would explain how I attended the Krispy Kreme ribbon cutting this morning and had a donut.

Which, ok, having a donut wasn’t so bad…but then, while I was running around helping Gerry get ready for her meeting, I grabbed a giant cookie from a leftover Chick-fil-a tray and had that, too =\.

Then I rushed to pick up my Emmos from school, got home, and ate 3 small leftover pizza slices we made last night:

Small, but they were bread =\. MORE BREAD!

Got to work, drank a bottle of water (that’s another thing: I haven’t been drinking my 4 16oz. bottles like I’d been doing =\), had 1 of those Nature Valley dark chocolate/peanut butter crackers, or whatever it’s called. Do all the work things (it’s gonna get even more hectic, ahhh!). Head to Starbucks for Jorge ’cause he’s working late. Grab a drink for myself, a skinny caramel macchiato…and it’s gross. Head to the store to get a few things to put in a gift bag for my boss for Boss’ Day tomorrow (which, to all of our horror, we JUST FOUND OUT TODAY!!). I’m so tired I think, “Ain’t nobody got time for cooking today!” so I grab some frozen taquitos and some Rico’s cheese. One of my staple Fatty-McFatterson meals from back in the day. As I’m talking to the boys on the phone and shoving these taquitos in my mouth I can hear my inner-lost-in-the-rolls-skinny-person whispering from far away, “Doooon’t eeeeaaattt itttt!!” But I’ve already eaten 5 taquitos, licked the container of cheese till it was clean and followed it up with 5 generic Oreos and a bit of milk. Looking for what NOT to eat throughout the day? –Just re-read this post.

Ugh. I feel so disgusted with myself. It’s like I’m doing it to sabotage myself! And yes, I know I’m whining instead of getting off my ass and onto the treadmill. I’m spending some time with the girls before I have to put them to bed. And then I will start. Tonight. I’m starting T25, even though I ate like crap today. I’ve got The Biggest Loser on for inspiration. If they can do it, I can too, darnit!

I’m alive; I know it’s been a while. Life’s gotten crazy (in a good way) and I never have time to update. Or when I do have time I pass out on the sofa…it’s awful. My body just *craves* rest these days.

But anyway. Two posts I have drafted will be up, hopefully this weekend. I never even finished with the girls’ birthday posts either. Blah!

So. About the title: yes. I’m going carb-free. And sugar-free, to boot. This is going to be a challenge for me. I love food. And I love sweets and baking sweets.

Jorge started the Keto Diet (very low carbs, no sugar) a week before my birthday when he saw that it worked for his friend Marcos. Marcos has lost about 35-40 lbs. in 2-3 months. Without exercising. WHAT.

I thought it was crazy; some of the things the diet encourages you to eat–such as eggs cooked in butter and coffee with butter–sounded INSANE to me!! That goes against everything I was ever taught! Jorge doesn’t actually eat that way; he eats lots of lean proteins and salads. He’s doing impressively well sticking to it. I was eating the same as I usually do: mostly-healthy food in small portions, but whenever someone (usually at work) waves a donut or cookies in front of my face, I’d eat it!!

I even felt like I was sabotaging Jorge’s diet. Twice in one week I ate carb-y stuff in front of him; one night I sat in BED (I vowed to myself I’d never eat in bed) while we watched American Dad and I polished off half a box of Philly cheese with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. And he stole some, which is a no-no on this diet. And the next time we were watching a movie and I ate half a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos with Lay’s Ranch Dip on my own…and he stole some when he’d been doing so well. (Actually, the Ranch Dip is a good snack since it’s got 2g of carbs, but with pork skins, no joke. It’s the chips that are bad.)

So, when Jorge lost 15 lbs. in 1 1/2 weeks (20 so far, in about 3 1/2) and you could SEE it, I jumped on the wagon. I haven’t been doing very well doing the low-cal, sweets-in-moderation version I was trying, so I figured, why not? Sure, my cholesterol might jump up a few notches, but it’s only for a little while, until I can train myself not to NEED bread, or sugar. Especially donuts :(.

And it’s not like I haven’t done this before; I’ve already given up bread and sugar in 2008 because I had diabetes and I HAD to, whether I wanted to or not. It went away, 3 months later, and I did pretty good until a few months later when I started having sweets again. I’ve been fine since, but with the initial scare and both my parents having diabetes, and being 31 (Jesus!), I need to start taking care of myself.

It’s been a hard week; it was Administrative Professionals Day on Wednesday and our boss took us out to eat at Tony’s Romas. I’m proud to say I behaved myself, even though I really wanted to dig into the onion blossom, the BREAD AND BUTTER, the spinach artichoke dip, and chips and salsa :(. But I stuck with it. I keep hearing Jorge tell me, “If you try this diet and eat all those high fats, and you sneak in carbs when you’re not supposed to be “carbing up”, then you’re going to gain A LOT OF WEIGHT.” I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THAT. So instead I got my broccoli and cheese, grilled salmon and grilled veggies.

I had a lunch meeting on Thursday, and of course we ordered box lunches from Jason’s Deli. I LOVE those darn cookies; they’re probably some of my favorite cookies, ever. BUT I soldiered on and behaved myself.

The girls left to Mario’s for the weekend on Thursday night, so we spent an hour playing Hide Hello Kitty <3. I miss them!! When they left I headed to my love's job site. I'm super impressed with his work; this place is going to be THE PLACE to be. I can't wait to upload pics! We ate at Taco Ole. It was a rainy, cold night and menudo was perfect. That's probably the best part of this diet, heh. We unfortunately couldn't have the tea and chips, but we lived. We got home and this adorable thing was in the mail:

The last Slumber Popple I needed!! My love told me to offer a price and the seller went for it! I was thrilled. And I blame Pinterest for making me become obsessed again!!! I wish Pinterest had been around back then, when I was really into collecting. Creating wishlists and keeping track of what I had would have been so much easier!

Yesterday was our Golf Tournament at work. I knew I was going to have trouble. First, all us girls at work took a fruit and we had fruit for breakfast before our crazy day.

I had some, about a cup and a half. No waffle cone and no bananas. Jorge said as long as I ate my sugar in the morning, I’d burn them off, especially because it was in the morning. I didn’t even have my coffee; and that’s probably why I ended up with a splitting headache. My morning started with the girls at registration.

I hate that angle, but we’ll blame the boobs for making me look chunks, yes? 😛

After lunch (fajita tacos, no tortilla), Wally and I headed to the Margarita Tent, which we manned for the next 3 hours. It was torture.

I caved in to the peer pressure and had one. JUST ONE. I’m disappointed that I had one, but I’m proud that I didn’t allow myself to have more!

When my shift changed to hole-in-one spotter (I loathe the fact that I’m the only girl who has to do that!!!!) I snacked on sunflower seeds and water. And tried staying awake, which was insane since my head was pounding.

We ate dinner (grilled chicken and salsa for me; no beans, rice or tortillas) and the door prizes/auction were over and we cleaned and finally got to head back to work to unload, had a celebratory toast of wine and then I went to my love’s current project again. I CAN’T WAIT to see this place completely finished!

We came home, ate dinner, and we watched a few eps of the Voice and I felt great and passed out.

Woke up in the morning and felt incredibly disgusting. My cold was back with a vengeance. And PMS–dear Lord, why!? I slothed in bed for about an hour after waking up.

I weighed myself. So far, according to my crappy scale, since starting the diet Monday night, I’ve lost 3 lbs. Which is good, I guess, considering I had so much sugar yesterday (right now I can only have a max of 20 carbs, eek!).

I made myself some breakfast and then Mom and I went to Home Depot to get fire ant killer (they killed my red Bougainvillea!!) & plant food, Kohl’s to return a blouse, Dollar Tree to get a few things, to visit Gramma, to Walmart, and to Dollar Tree again. And got home and made these:

Super easy recipe: a full leaf of lettuce, sun-dried tomato basil turkey, smoked Gouda and sliced avocados, lightly salted. Layer all in that order and roll :). So yummy!

Briana came over and we chilled out for a while. And now I’m sitting outside with the guys. I owe my staying up this late to cutting out the carbs and sugar, I really do. But we’ll see how it goes. I can do it. I have a dress to fit into in June!!