Days Gone Bye

Days have been flying by here lately. 

Work has been super crazy - with a trip to Cincinnati (pictures to come), having to come in at 4am when a certain customer comes in to watch their product run (which has caused me to work 21 hours....yes, 21 hours....in one day) and on and on and on.

I'm not going to make any excuses as to what is going on with my weight loss and with my workouts.  It's all on me.  I have full responsibility for my actions.

Last night was the first night back to the gym in forever.  And I was so happy I went.  I did almost pass out in weight lifting class, though.  My blood pressure got too high. 

And I have gained some back.  I can tell because my hernia is acting up again.  I could tell a big difference when I was losing steadily before, because I couldn't feel my hernia as much.  It didn't pop up so often.  Gotta get back down to that.

More later.

26 Pounds and 13% Body Fat

Since starting to be serious about weight loss on March 20th of this year, I have lost 26 pounds and 13% body fat.  I've been on this journey for 12 weeks!  I was so happy this morning when I weighed in.  Upping my calories has apparently worked.  I went from about 1300-1500/day to 1875/day.  I had been fighting the same 3lbs for a few week and couldn't figure it out so met with a nutritionist at the gym last Friday.  I've been tweaking the calorie/carb/sodium/fat balance since then. 

Ugh!  It makes my brain hurt!

And it being Wednesday (and supposed to be wordless) I leave you with this.  Today, it's 58 and thunder stormy.  This picture was taken while we were at the Outer Banks...we were on the ferry between Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island.  See the storms in the distance??

Falafe................wha?

Anyone that REALLY knows me knows I LOVE Greek/Middle-Eastern food. 

My husband's boss is from Israel.  He taught me how to make SOOOOOO many tasty things - though I really wish they weren't so high in fat :(. 

One of my absolute favorites is Falafel.  Falafel is fried chickpeas or fava beans...or sometimes both.  Favas have a richer, less snappy flavor than chickpeas, so would be better for someone who likes a milder taste.  I love them both.  You take them, mash them up, form them into patties, and fry them in olive oil-y goodness - serve them on a pita with tzatziki sauce or in a salad with some tahini (sesame paste) and - absolute bliss.

So, when I went to The Fresh Market yesterday and saw these......

OMG, I could have died.  I think I walked by them like 5 times before I put them in the cart.  Then, I found the baba ghannouj (pronounced baa baa ganoosh) and I was really hooked.    Baba ghannouj is roast eggplant, but this is made kinda like hummus.  I  love hummus (another thing that Othman has taught me how to make on my own) but sometimes I get lazy and buy the store-bought stuff.  Especially when my stomach is eating itself because I skipped my 4pm snack because I decided to skip the gym and go to the Fresh Market to get sushi.

So, while I was driving back to work to drop off Tammy's dinner for her, I ate 10 chips and about 1/8c of the baba ghannouj, lol.  10 chips are not like potato chips...these are big rounds.  Not bad WW points wise at all.  And dinner was tuna and salmon ngiri, california roll and potstickers.

A few other things I got at Fresh Market was spinach artichoke dip, a container of veggie antipasta, crispy bread rounds, a panini that Michael had for dinner, veggie chips, fruit chips, strawberries, corn tortillas, and I think that was it.  I always spend a crap ton in there, which is why I only go about 1x a month, but it's always worth it.  It wasn't as busy as it typically is...I wonder if the addition of Whole Foods to Greensboro has anything to do with it?  I haven't been to Whole Foods yet, basically because I hear they are REALLY expensive. 

I AM going to the gym tonight.  I am doing intervals on the treadmill and weights again.  Then, I am meeting Jody to walk.  I'm going to focus on just getting through the intervals, rather than speed....I think I'll try that, because I want to start going for distance, rather than speed.....does that make sense at all?  My first 5K is in July (bad, bad time to start, I know), and I want to RUN it..the whole thing.  Even if it's at 4.5mph, I want to run it.

Tomorrow I have the Zumbathon, then Michael and I are going to start tackling staining the fence.  I think I just had a flashback to The Karate Kid......**Daniel-san, Paint the Fence......uuuuuup.....doooooown.......uuuuuuupppp......doooooooown**