We’re having an icy, snowy weekend here in Memphis, which doesn’t happen too often, so it’s a Very big Deal. Traffic jams and crashes everywhere! And I’m not just talking about the streets–the grocery stores are almost as bad. I try to avoid them at all costs.

Unfortunately, I found myself in need of a non-food item this morning and while I would’ve preferred Target, the grocery store was closest and had what I needed. As expected, it was chaos. Carts crashing into each other, over-hyped children bouncing all over the place, desparate shoppers scrounging for bread–absolute bedlam! As I stood in the ultra-long self-check line, it was actually kind of fun to watch. (I’m sick that way.)

It was also interesting to observe what people bought in terms of “emergency” supplies. I understand the chili fixin’s, the canned soups and crackers, and the milk, bread, cereal, oatmeal, etc. But multiple bags of potato chips, cookies, candy, frozen french fries, frozen waffles, and stacks of frozen pizzas? I suspect lots of New Year’s Resolutions will be broken this weekend.

You can rest assured that three years ago, I would’ve been right in there with them! I stocked up on very little in the way of nutrition, but bunches of high-calorie, high-fat snacks. As you know, that’s all changed for me now. But looking around at the carts around me, I was feeling a little deprived. With the scarcity of snow days around here, there’s almost a festive air when we do. And festivities have snacks, right?

Well, yes they do, but there’s a difference between having a tasty snack on hand and indulging in an all-out food orgy. I knew I already had plenty of snacks at home: yogurt, almonds, sunflower seeds, all manner of fresh fruits, and a fridge full of chopped veggies. If I want cookies, there are some animal crackers in the pantry. Any salty snack desires can be handled with some air-popped popcorn. All my usual…stuff.

But I wanted something different, something out of the ordinary  for this very out-of-the-ordinary day. Had I not already been in the check-out line, I might have gone off in search an Asian Pear*, which is tasti-licious, but pricey, so not part of my normal routine. Or I might have gone over to the health food section for some spelt pretzels. I haven’t had those in a long time. But like I said, I knew I had good snacks at home, if I should want them, and there wasn’t really any point (not a good one anyway) in buying more.

And then I saw them–two treats guaranteed to brighten my weekend into something special:

Perfect! A little dose of bottled decadence, and something to occupy my hands if the over-snacking urge strikes.Ahhhh….blisssss!

Admit it, you’re jealous, aren’t you?

No? Well, what two items would you have bought in their place? (Keep in mind, you’re surrounded by crazed shoppers with snack-filled baskets when you make your choice.*G*)

Happy weekend to all! Be safe!

Oh, and as of this writing–no snow!

*If you’ve never had an Asian Pear, it’s kind of a cross between an apple and a pear, or that’s what it tastes like to me.

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Do you like your legs? Do you sometimes think about doing some squats but never really get around to it?

Think you could do “Squat, lunge, jump, press, lift, stretch, bend, extend” 4 times a week for a WHOLE MONTH?

I challenge you to…

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“I can appreciate you being thirsty, but would think that a 200 calorie drink is not really what the plan is aiming for. That would be what, like 2 medium apples? Could you try water for just 1 day? Good luck with it no matter what you decide.”

My question is…did you really take back the protein Naked drink after you already tried it? Did they take it back? I didn’t know you could do that!!

So that juice…bad idea. Juice in general is a bad idea. 200 calorie DiGiorno pizza…(again, my apologies, no offense intended)…from a health standpoint? Bad idea. It’s 200 calories of extremely processed, refined, chemically altered, artificially flavored nothingness…that (for me, often, at least) leads to a cycle of craving. I remember in a much-debated post a month or so back, you and your readers talked about convenience/packaged “diet” foods vs. whole foods…and most came down in favor of frozen dinners and bagged 100-calorie junk snacks.

Your body adapts to and wants what you give it…you give it crap, it wants more crap. You give it fresh vegetables and a nice salmon filet and it wants more of that. After a year or so of eating chicken breasts and broccoli on my own, a friend told me about the Eat-Clean Diet by Tosca Reno (who is a priorfatgirl, as am I..200 pounds two years ago, 140 lb competitive athlete today). I’m not saying it’s perfect or I’m perfect (not by far) but it only makes sense to think of food as FUEL and to make every calorie count, if that makes sense. Yeah, you have to make the effort to shop for fresh foods, prepare and cook them and pack them…but the effect it has on your metabolism, energy and, very quickly, your body — and long term, your health — is more than worth it. Just my opinions…

I don’t quite get why you would want to do this experiment. Hunger is not an emergency, that’s for sure but being hungry isn’t really required for losing weight either.

I don’t want to come off as sounding rude and I do love that you’re trying to get to the bottom of your cravings and need to eat beyond merely nutritional reasons the insight you gain is going to help you (and probably those who read about it) so much.

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That’s right. I’m still in New Zealand, but the vacation part of my trip is over. We might go on a few more quick day trips while I’m here, but the full on act-like-a-tourist, eat-whatever-I-want, have-so-much-fun-I-can’t-stand-it vacation stuff is over. It was a super fun week.

Today we went to the last thing I wanted to see, which was something involving volcanic/thermal activity. If I am going to be around all these volcanoes I might as well see some cool stuff. So we went to Wai-o-Tapu Geothermal Wonderland in the Wai-o-Tapu area of the Taupo Volcanic Zone, which is about halfway between Taupo and Rotorua. We went there mainly because they have a geyser that erupts every day at 10:15 (with some help from soap). I’ve never seen a geyser, so it was pretty cool for the first couple minutes.

After we saw the geyser we walked through the park to see all the different types of activity.

Kepa had fun standing on and touching things he probably shouldn’t have. (Okay, I touched the water in a few places too. Shhh.)

It was a pretty interesting little adventure, and now I never have to go to anything like that again since my curiosity is satisfied.  Today we took full advantage of the fact that it was our last day of proper vacation. In other words, we once again ate terribly. For breakfast I had toast with peanut butter and honey and then for lunch we had fish and chips:

This was followed by the two of us splitting FOUR desserts. Yes four. This is what evolved from the beginning of our dessert choosing when I asked if Kepa wanted to split one or each get our own. Instead we each got two of our own then shared.

OMG, right? Half was delicious and then the other two were so so. We ended up only eating about half, as you can assess from the damage we did.

We also ate pizza for dinner and split a piece of cheesecake.  Ah, not exactly the way you lose weight people.  (Is this even a weight loss blog anymore?  Geez!)  But vacation eating is so lovely and I will miss it.

Now that I’m back in Auckland I’m ready to just hang around, meet more people (Kepa’s friends), get back to working out and eating healthy. I weigh in tomorrow and I can tell you now that it is a gain. Even though we both ate on similar levels of crappiness (weight loss wise) the last week I do believe Kepa will post a loss while I post a gain. It’s quite depressing when I think about how easy it is for me to regain weight. I can gain 5 lbs in a week and then it will take me a month to lose that. Oh well! It is what it is and tomorrow I’m hopping back on the weight loss train. I’m going back to eating healthy things and will figure out how to challenge myself with workouts. My back is feeling better and after resting a bit today I should be ready to go. I’ll post more about how I decide to tackle this later when I post my weigh in results.  I’m just ready to get going and make things happen.

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Sometimes I HATE my body.

I hate when it doesn’t work like I want it to.

I hate when it hurts.

I hate when it’s not as good and as fit and as awesome as it could be.

Like today.  I hate my body.

I know, you probably are confused.  “Isn’t this the girl who is always talking about positive self-esteem and loving her body?”  Well, yeah, I am.  But this has nothing to do with appearance.  It is purely physical.  And it sucks.

After bungy jumping my back was a bit sore because of whiplash or whatever but after a couple days it seemed to be gone.  Then I woke up today with a super sore back that feels overly uncomfortable and hurts in certain situations.  I must have slept in the wrong position because it totally through me out of whack.  And this whole situation sucks because today we were supposed to be going mountain biking and do more kayaking.  Yet we aren’t because both of these things will hurt.  I’ve done some stuff today but nothing where I had to use my back muscles.

Because my back is sore and ruining my fun I am hating my body. Or okay, maybe I’m just hating my back.  But having a body that you can’t use to do the things you want to do sucks.  No way around that little fact of life.

Hopefully by tomorrow my back will get a clue and stop hurting so I can go do some crazy fun stuff.  And then I will get back to loving my body an what it can do.

Even though I’ve been a step short of invalid, we did do some fun stuff today.  Like playing mini golf!  We’ve apparently developed a love for putt putt and have played pretty much every course in Rotorua.  Yesterday that’s what the majority of our day was, plus batting cage action!  Some of the courses weren’t as fun, like when I was losing:

But then some were AWESOME, like the one where I caught a BUNNY!  Yeah!  Best mini golf course ever – they just had this cute bunny hopping around while you were playing.  He was my new friend… for a few seconds, then he started kicking to get down.  But I loved him.

Because of my back stuff we couldn’t go do some things today, but I could strap myself in to another thrill ride.  We went back to the Luge here in Rorotua for a few more runs and while we were there we also did the SKY SWING!  Let me tell you – that is pretty scary.  I had no idea what to expect before going on it, so when they were lifting our cage up to the point where it drops the anticipation was killing me.  Then once we dropped down to swing across it became fun again and I was able to laugh through the rest of the swing.

Pictures are nice, but not nearly as cool as the video. Check it out, but be warned – there is profanity.

Apparently Kepa and I are adventure junkies.  We are both ready to try all these new cool, crazy activities.   We saw several skydivers today and can’t wait to do that.  But as we are both around the weight limit we have to wait on that activity. We’ve kind of got a list going of things we want to try or do again.   I love doing these things the first time.  There is a nervous anticipation that will never again be matched.  The release is part of the thrill and I love it sooo much.  I love doing things for the first time.

The sky swing was a first for me today, as was eating Eggs Benedict.  I’ve never tried eggs that way but I understand why people love it.  So delicious!  Add that to the lovely vacation eating, picture included!

After eating that for brunch, since we ate around 11, we decided to eat ice cream too and then skip lunch. We’ve had ice cream several times in the last couple of days in Rotorua.

For dinner we headed to a Italian place, Nuvolari. We split garlic bread and arancini for starters…

… and then I had a chicken fettucine, and ate a bit of Kepa’s pizza too…

… and we finished by splitting two desserts and I had a hot chocolate. Yum!

I told you I’ve been eating yummy food. Now you get to drool over it yourself.  Congratulations.

So… a little adventure… a little pain… a little bit of delicious food.  Yep, I am The Back Pain Having, Good Food Eating, Adventure Junkie.  You can call me Mary for short.

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When I was little, Mom claimed Saturdays as her day to sleep in, which meant my brother and I spent the morning with Dad. It was awesome. We got to wear anything we wanted – stripes on plaid, Friday’s underwear, one blue and one green sock – and the only mandatory rules were to brush our teeth, wash our hands and flush the toilet. We didn’t even have to brush our hair!

Dressed and unkempt, we’d pile in the car and go to the bakery. Dad bought us whatever donut we wanted (as you can guess, anything with chocolate icing was OK with me). We’d eat our donuts while Dad drove the station wagon through the car wash, then we’d go home and watch cartoons.

When my girls were little, Saturday mornings were my day to sleep in, too. At least until Pee Wee’s Playhouse came on. The girls woke me up for that. But beforehand, they’d get up and “make” their own breakfast* and I let them wear whatever they wanted. As long as they brushed their teeth, washed their hands and flushed the toilet, they could watch cartoons all morning.

(*The night before, I’d place a box of cereal on the counter along with two bowls. I’d pour milk in two plastic cups and juice in two other cups, cover them in plastic wrap, and set them in the refrigerator. The next morning, the girls poured their own cereal and added the pre-measured milk. It was their first cooking lesson!)

As I write this, my hair isn’t combed and I don’t have any one thing I want to address in this morning’s blog. So in the tradition of my hodge-podge Saturdays, I offer the following observations and a very tasty recipe:

1. You know how I said a few blogs ago that I was going to be more mindful and to not wish away moments? Well, tell me if this is cheating: I acknowledge that it’s 7 degrees outside, and while I don’t like it, I accept that there’s nothing I can do to change the weather. That’s staying present, right? But in defiance of the thermometer, I made a pretty spring-colored breakfast:

A raspberry-banana smoothie with chocolate soy and Greek yogurt and a cup of Spring Cherry green tea. And even though I shivered in front of my space heater, eating tropical fruit and thinking of cherry blossoms kept me warm in my mind.

That might be cheating a little, but it was a very good moment within a moment.

2. Cammy at Tippy Toe Diet posted a great blog yesterday about how jam packed the grocery stores get whenever the weather’s about to turn bad. What is it about predictions of snow and ice that cause people to suddenly need copious amounts of milk, bread and eggs? It’s like snow causes masses of people to crave French Toast!

3. Sometimes it takes more than will and intention to get me on the elliptical. That’s when I rely on my favorite workout shirt for motivation (you know, the pink one?). But when I put it on this morning, I realized it had already seen its last workout. It’s been washed too many times; shrunk up and threadbare. Goodbye, old shirt. Thank you for the great workouts.

4. Two things I love: Middle Eastern spices and simple recipes. My Moroccan Stew is inspired by two recipes, one from weight Watchers and one from Taste Of Home. You can make it in a crock pot or on the stove.

1 C onion, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped or minced
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into ½-inch chunks
2 C carrots, roughly chopped
1 C celery, chopped
2 C canned crushed tomatoes
1 C veggie broth
1 cinnamon stick (or ½ t ground cinnamon)
1-2 t cumin (depends on how much you like cumin)
½ t chili powder (you can also use red pepper flakes if you like it a little hotter)
15 oz canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed

Sauté onion and garlic in a pan coated with cooking spray until slightly browned. I also add a tablespoon or two of broth which prevents burning or drying. Throw the onions, garlic and everything else in a crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours or in a stock pot and simmer for an hour.

5. If you want to join Lynn’s Weigh on Facebook, click here. We’re a fun little group of losers…and I mean that in a good way.

Wear what you want, don’t worry about your hair, just enjoy your Saturday. See ya’ll Monday!

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Weird World of Photo Collage ««« link

Vintage Playgrounds

another load to the dump … 1 garbage bag and 2 rubber totes

then off to my friend’s for lunch …

it’s all iced up out at the lake and very beautiful

chicken breast + romaine + red onion + grape tomatoes + ranch dressing

dinner at my Mom’s

1/2 stuffed pepper + 1/2 stuffed cabbage + potato + asparagus

My friend’s home is so peaceful. It’s spare, decluttered, organized, calm. It’s very relaxing to be there.

My Mom’s is not. It’s so cluttered with stuff on every surface. She keeps it all very clean but gees the knick-knacky things doesn’t let your mind rest at all. My sister sent her flowers for her birthday and there on the kitchen counter sat the empty, generic clear glass vase and bow. I asked her if she was going to recycle the vase and throw out the bow. Nope. She might put flowers in it next spring (!) and the bow will be for next Christmas (!) First of all, she never has flowers in the house and second of all, she’s got every frickin bow she’s ever gotten stuffed somewhere. I got her to let me throw out the bow but when I went to put the vase in the recycling she told me I was being mean. lol. Poor thing. I was projecting my frustration on to her, I know that, but it pissed me off that a stupid, ugly glass vase was worthy of space and that she couldn’t let go of it. It pissed me off because she taught me how to be like this. I have to say honestly, that I was mad at her.

My dad couldn’t throw stuff away either. When he died, my mom had to deal with his papers back to the 1960’s!!! He died in ‘85.

It’s terrible not being able to part with things. They’re only things but boy does it cause me a lot of distress trying to make decisions about getting rid of it all. It gives me brain cramps.

So here I am at home feeling frustrated with all MY stuff.

Right now, I feel like I never want to buy another THING again in my life.

I have two empty rubber totes and I’m just going to dump whatever items I want to give away in to them.

I’m not a garage sale person. I don’t care if I’m going to be reimbursed for all these items. I’ve never gone broke giving things away. I’m always re-blessed 10 times over, if anything.

I feel like putting everything outside on tables with a “Garage Giveaway” sign and let everyone have their pick of one or two things. Can you imagine?

Right now, I actually can.

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Guess what movie I went to go see last night?

I’m in the minority … I could’ve lived without seeing it. The special effects were good but this just isn’t my kind of movie. I’ll wear the glasses while you throw tomatoes at me. That should look cool. And hurt.

Now as the physical clutter in my house diminishes, the clutter on my body isn’t going anywhere.

I swear that by the end of the year, both will be gone.

I hope.

Have a great Saturday!

I’m off to visit with my friend out in Amherstburg and then I’m going to my Mom’s for dinner so it’ll be a nice relaxing day for me with family and friends. Perfect.

Oh, I almost forgot! I’m dropping off another load at the dump this morning while it’s still free to do so. The rates are going up on Monday … to $2 a load for 100kg and under.

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I had a blast earlier this week trying out several new dance workout DVDs . I’m no dancer by any stretch of the imagination, but in the privacy of my own home, I’ll bop and bounce and booty shake to my heart’s content. Like Jenn has exercise ADD, I have DVD ADD, and I like [...]

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