drammatical

Made burgers yesterday…

So last night when N got home he asked what type of meat the burgers were made from. Uhhhh, what? Beef of course! He said they were sortta dry… Phew!

I usually buy 87-90% ground sirloin beef and make them myself but while at TJ’s this weekend I decided to use their 95% beef patties already shaped and stacked for me. Turns out N no likey these. After I reassured N that he was indeed eating moo and not some sort of rat burger he looked relieved. Pobre, I bet he was wondering all day what the hell I was feeding him. Told him not eat the remaining patties as I’d just eat them for lunch the next two days.

So I just got a call from him. He ate the last patty! Told me that being on the Zone M-H wouldn’t kill him so he bit the bullet and ate the last rat burger. Poor guy. Now I just hope he doesn’t lose a ton of weight cause that man can drop three pounds just by saying he will. Grrrr I hate his super strength metabolism.

Lesson of the day – N no like pre-prepared burgers. Especially not super-extra-lean ones.

“rat burgers are the shit!! drunk or not, they send you to another place. they are the east coast equivilant to menudo for a hang over. rat burgers and yohoo!” – jersey, Aug 14, 2007

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Today being my 2.2 day I feel good. Had my bootcamp (BC) session at an ungodly hour and made it to the train on time and ate breakfast at work. Have had B, L and a snack and so far I’ve been a strict Zoner. Although there was this incident in the morning where all of a sudden I needed a mini-zucchini muffin from Starbucks and almost had one if it wasn’t for their insane line. For once in my life I was pleased to see a line a mile out.

I've been arguing with myself for the past few weeks about getting serious about my eating habits. Its not like I eat a bunch of crap but for the workouts I get in there really should be results. So, once again I'm back on the Zone. Hopefully I can try and really stick it through. The plan really isn't hard but just knowing its a diet of sorts really puts me off mentally. Anyway, after a hiatus from watching what I eat I'm back to really thinking about all my choices. Ugh.

That's the thing that has always bothered me about food changes, all the thinking involved. You know, all the preparing and stuff. After the wedding I was pretty burned out from this. Pre-wedding I went on a pretty intense diet and got great results but damn was that hard. So of course post-wedding I went crazy and indulged in all I could get my little hands on. Then I had this crazy idea put into my head about participating in some trail race. huh? So, I went on the Zone last April and once again got some great results for the race in May. With only a month and half- assing it I was quite impressed with this little diet's powers. So here we go again, except this time around I'm taking it a tad more serious and have two months till my race.

Please light a candle to the virgencita for my oh so powerful love of cookies, chocolate, ice cream, wine, bread and pizza. I'll miss you all *tear*. Sniff.


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So yeah, this is actually my second week on the Zone. I must say that I'm pretty proud of myself and even though I wasn't insanely on the Zone at all times I did manage to be on it about 65% of the time. Anyway, since I had weighed and started last week on Tuesday I deem today the commencement of week 2. I lost a total of 1.5 lbs but I'm always weary of these types of results. I need to see an actual pattern for at least four weeks before I can actually accept any weight loss.

Things that I've started to do have been journaling all my meals. Anything come in it all goes in my little trusty book. Even though I only managed to track two days last week I've incorporated some goals for this week:

Goals for Week 2
- Record food for at least 5 days this week (need to be realistic)
- Continue with four day WO, maybe add a Sunday run if legs are up for it
- Omega 3 & B complex everyday this week
- 3 servings of poison everyday
- I can't believe this one, no alcohol except on Sat & Sun
- Min. 5 liters of water a day
- No breads/ grains/ rice after 1PM (except for Fridays)

Ack! It's 4 min to 1, gotta run and eat my bread.

No time no see. Geez, I really did fall off the wagon here. I was actually contemplating on just closing shop. Not really a quitter but it seems that maintaining a blog is much harder than I had originally anticipated.

So what have I been up to? Nothing much, just watching a bunch or movies and reading, and of course eating. There was this trial I was on for THREE months! Can you believe! No one did. But yeah, its true the thing lasted three months. They were tough emotional months for me as it was a murder trial. I won’t divulge any details only that we did reach a verdict on two out of the three charges. I must admit that this experience has affected me a bit. More on that in a day or two…

Since then, only two weeks ago, I’ve come back to work and tried to continue with my regular routine. Same ole stuff like surfing the net (gawd I missed you), composing e-mails, working, cooking and trying to get back into shape. Seems this last task is never ending. Actually, they’re all never ending. Anyway, I watched a ton of movies during my hiatus but only really remember a few. Guess they weren’t all good. The few that I feel compelled to list are:

1. Michael Clayton – this movie really surprised me! Loved it!
2. There Will Be Blood – you just can’t get any better than Danny Day Lewis. I freakin’ <3 him. One of thee best movies of the year for me.
3. No Country For Old Men – great story but it was a tad slow for me. I think this is a total guy movie like Atonement is a total girl movie ya know.
4. Atonement – there’s very few actors I love and Miss Knightley is one of them. True to her acting skills she didn’t disappoint.
5. Trade – this movie had me on edge all the way through!
6. Sweeney Todd – made me rethink of my “hate musical and will never watch them” policy I enacted after Chicago. Was quite entertaining, but then again I <3 Depp.
7. Death at a Funeral – if you haven’t yet seen this film, DO!



So all in all you didn’t miss much in my absence.

It's 10:30 PM on Sunday night and N has gone to work and I'm supposed to be working. Eh! Can't concentrate though. And what is it that I do when I'm trying to avoid work? Yes, correct, surf the web. I can finish up writing those Christmas cards or order the prints we need for our gifts but that just does not seem interesting enough. Plus I may be away from the wonderful work of www since tomorrow I'll be going to court for possible jury selection. Another eh! This would be something I'd really be psyched about if I didn't have a million things on my plate right now. Guess that's the ways of the world though, nothing comes at a convenient time.

What I am psyched about is this blog I stumbled onto. Haven't read it all but a six month trip, six months off, a six month sabbatical! This sounds like my cup of tea, definitely. So, if you had six months off your lives where would you go? For us its pretty easy, all over America. Might sound boring to some but not to us. We both are very interested in visiting all of South and Central America. We want to learn more about our culture, our people, our history. Other than Africa, most of the Americas remain untouched by industrious powers. To go and walk among amazonians, to see machu picchu, marvel at the highly adapted creatures found nowhere else but Galapagos, I can go on and on.

The funny thing is that the Americas are so unappreciated. The land is so full of life and culture and love. Both N and I have talked about our future, once we get to the stage in our lives when our not-yet born children are outta the house and we're up for retirement. We both agree that we plan on moving on from this place and onto Latin America. Why not? We speak the language, know and respect the culture and to boot we too are Latin American. For now though we must work hard in order to make this dream a reality. So alas I better get my behind back to report writing.

I feel so restless. It is so beautiful outside that all I can think of is anything but work. These windows behind me are only fueling my desires to leave already. Hell I may even make a trip to the SB across the street just to get out. Plus now that I'm bored I want to eat. Something with chocolate.

Alright, in order to distract my brain I'll just continue to rant. Since the New Year is looming and I'm sure everyone will be making resolutions I think I'll share my goals for the month. See I don't make resolutions. As a matter of fact a friend pointed out that NY resolutions are an urban legend, I must agree. Anyway, because I have to talk myself into almost everything I do I started, many moons ago, to make little lists of goals. Sometimes I make lists for each day, a week, or even a month. For December I've already drafted a list which of course is subject to revisions (many I'm sure). Here it is:

1. Jog/ workout at least 5 days out of the week - so far I got 2 days in.
2. Must finish reading eat, pray love
3. Must start and finish The Memory Keeper's Daughter
4. Allowed only 5 trips to SB this month
5. Make dinner at least four nights out of the week
6. Get xmas tree before the 9th
7. Mail out xmas cards by the 5th
8. Refrain from getting annoyed at idiot people, learn to relax
9. Seek volunteering opportunity at church
10. Kiss N every night before I go to bed

Yes, its sad that my poor N had to remind me of the fact that I don't kiss him every night before I go to bed. Sometimes I just lay down and that's it, I'm a goner. We also want to get a xmas tree sooner than later so we can enjoy it longer. As for not getting annoyed, that's going to be a tough one. I'm already starting to get a tad annoyed... And books, man do I have a lot that I haven't read just sitting there on our bookshelves. Yes, no more buying until I read em all. What's on your list*?

*Just pretend you have one please.

I had such a great weekend! Was filled with food, booze, jogging, family and movies. I may still be high off the festivities.

On Friday I worked from home and did some cleaning and cooking. Felt so good finishing all my chores before the weekend. Our poor little apartment hadn't had a proper cleaning since before we left on our trip to Mexico. Speaking of which...


On Saturday I did all our laundry and went for a jog. That jog was one of the most difficult things on earth. I hadn't gone out since before Thanksgiving so I knew that jog was going to be painful, very, and it was. I'm so proud of myself though because I was able to talk myself into doing it and making it at a pretty good pace. Was still very tough though. Later that evening my sis came over with her little monkeys. We had pizza and watched License to Wed. Both my sister and I thought it was quite comical but the kids were looking at us like some uncool losers. Looks as though we've been dumped off the cool train.

Yesterday all we did was watch NFL and drink. Good times I tell ya. Out of all the years I've been watching football I must admit that I only really pay attention when (a) I'm at the game or (b) I have a (monetary) vested interest in it. Since we don't have any NFL teams in our city it was (b) that had me glued to the tube. N won a ton of cash which made him very happy and made me very happy!

Also, I did manage to trick myself into another run yesterday. Boy was that even more painful than Saturday. I was so tired by 6ish that I had to literally take a disco nap. I blamed N's cold claiming that my body was probably trying to fight the cold N has but I really think that those two runs just did me in. What a fattass I've become. The shame. I'm going to give myself some rest today since its Monday and all but come Tuesday I'll have to lock myself out of the apartment to continue with my jogging.

As promised:

20 medium mushrooms
3 tbsp. minced onion
½ cup butter or margarine, divided
1/3 cup of dry bread crumbs (I use both plain and Italian herb)
¼ cup shelled, roasted/ salted pistachios, finely chopped
2 tbsp. chopped parsley (either fresh or dry works)
¼ tsp. marjoram, crushed
¼ tsp. salt

Remove stems from mushroom caps; finely chop stems. Sauté stems and onion in ¼ cup butter until tender. Add breadcrumbs, pistachios, parsley, marjoram and salt. Mix well. Spoon Stuffing into mushrooms caps. Place on baking sheet; drizzle with remaining melted butter (I never have any remaining butter so I just add more butter). Bake 350° F., 5 minutes or until hot.

N loves these and so do I! If you make any please let me know how they came out. Also, I sprinkle parmesan cheese over them just before I put them in the oven.