Blogging the Menu: Lurong Day 8

Woot, I accomplished everything I needed to today.  That's a good feeling.  I made it through the night without having anyone code (Win!), I got 3 solid hours of sleep (Yay!), made it to the box for Lurong 2 (Woo!), and did a shitload of laundry, squared away the spawn, and walked the dog.

I feel accomplished.  And tired.  Also pretty tired.  Tonight will be long, but oh well.  I'll live.

Tomorrow night is binge watching Outlander with a friend, then getting in my final shift before Ragnar.  I'm pretty stoked about going to New York, even if this will be done in an Ultrish fashion (we only have 9 runners for various reasons).  It's gonna be fun, I can feel it.

I had spaghetti squash and sauce for my midnight meal.

Not as pretty after being nuked.  Still tasted pretty great.

More peaches and raspberries at 3am.  So. Yum.

There were danish in the breakroom, but I managed to avoid that land mine and not feel deprived at all.  There were also grapes, and I did indulge in a few of those.

After my longish nap this morning, I pounded down the last of the apple carrot sausage hash before heading off to the box for the Lurong WOD.  It sat pretty well, fortunately.  Don't wanna be burping up sausage while doing burpees.  I did not photograph it.  It was gone too fast.

No lunch today as I'd already consumed what amounted to three meals.  Wasn't hungry at all, so I have no problem skipping the meal.

I opted to clear out some leftovers for dinner and went with Cottage Pie.  I can't believe there was any left.  I feel this must be due to all the food we made this week!

I had a couple of prunes for dessert when we got back from our dog walk, and they really hit the spot.  It sounds stupid to say I like prunes (because old people food, y'know) but they really are quite tasty.  

Oh!  Another awesome thing happened today!  We ran the Half Boring Half Marathon last week, and the race directors sent out an email to participants asking for feedback.  I told them the truth, that we really loved the event, but were a teeny bit disappointed that they didn't have track team shirts for sale since it was a fundraiser for the team (and I have a deep love for random t-shirts).  Guess what I got in the mail today?  A Damascus-Orient Track t-shirt!  How cool is that?  I was so surprised and thought that was the neatest thing.  All the way from Oregon, a total stranger (and race director!!) took the time to find and send me a shirt.  The only way it would've been better is if there had been yarn in the package and that is patently ridiculous.  

Two more shifts and I'm off for 8 days, which is pretty great.  After my next 7 on rotation I'm off for THREE WHOLE WEEKS!  I hope I remember how to pharmacist after all that time.

I stole this image from professionalfangirls.com.  I kind of love it.

This one, too.

Helloooooo nurse.

I have a problem.

Blogging the Menu: Lurong Day 7

Today was odd, as I had another "stay up for a while and go to sleep at noon" day.  I'm not sure I like that.  I'd rather sleep right away and have my afternoon and evening instead.  My husband had a good run, the weather wasn't as sucky as predicted, and all my friends who ran the FCM finished healthy and happy.  A good day for runners in NE Wisconsin.

The forecast is looking damn near perfect for Ragnar this weekend, and I'm starting to plan my clothing/packing so I'm not doing it at the last possible second on Wednesday.  My current debate is whether or not to bring my sleeping bag.  It's small, and it'll be chilly at night, but I don't know if I really want to waste the bag space.  I'm debating bringing a bigger bag this trip, but I must admit I get a charge out of packing really small for these things.

Our fridge is getting quite full of leftovers, so it's time to go through and see what's left.  It's probably not as much as I think, but there's lots of containers!

Midnight dinner was leftover Beef and Bacon Cottage Pie.  Even better after a day or two.

Spicetastic.

3am was more peaches and raspberries.  Such a great combo, and I'm enjoying the shit out of it before the peaches turn to cardboard at the end of the season and the raspberries go back up to $20/pint.  No picture, because my computer ate it, but you've seen it before.

I switched from coffee to tea after 3am, and had my cashews and dates as a little snack around 6am as I was planning to eat breakfast with the offspring.  

Sticks to your ribs.

When I tucked the boys into bed on Saturday night we discussed having pancakes for breakfast and that they were not to pester the sitter for cereal (we had a sitter come to sleep on the couch so hubs could leave early for his race).  They agreed and were happy about pancakes.  They should be happy.  I make that shit from scratch.  No Bisquick in this house.  

When I got home this morning, one of my lovely sons decided it was appropriate to beg for cereal and cry because he "doesn't even like pancakes".  This is a child who will eat eight pancakes in a sitting.  I told him that was total horseshit and if he didn't want pancakes he was welcome to starve, because I am a great parent.  Ultimately he mashed a bunch of pancakes and applesauce into his face and forgot all about cereal, but I wish that once, just once I could start my fucking day without one of my utterly privileged crotchfruit whining about some goddamn perceived persecution.  It really puts me in a bad frame of mind.  At least one of them thanked me for breakfast (he's my favorite).

Since I had the griddle out, I threw together some banana pancakes for myself.  I had them with blackberries and a carefully measured tablespoonful of real maple syrup.

No bacon because it was partially frozen.  Sadness abounds.

Then I went to sleep.  It was a good sleep.  I may have watched strategic parts of Saturday's episode of Outlander to encourage good dreams.  The best part of watching this show is that the male protagonist is played by a 34 year old actor (Sam Heughan-go forth and Google), so I don't have to feel guilty about wanting to do things to him.  Back when Twilight was a thing, I always felt a little "Mrs. Robinson" about admiring Taylor Lautner's shirtless form.  Not that I wanted to do things to TL-he's not my general type (and is a CHILD you fucking pervert), but he did have really nice abs.

So for dinner I had Citrus Carnitas and mashed squash.  Was that an excellent segue or what?

Magic pork.

My calves are totally cramped up today and I have no idea why.  It's kind of pissing me off.  I need to foam roll in the morning, then try to catch some sleep before heading off to the box to make up Lurong 2.  I'll be cleaning out the fridge in the afternoon and looking for inspiration on what to feed the spawn.  I was going to make myself some salmon, but I might opt for bacon wrapped scallops instead.  That pairs well with broccoli, and I have some I need to steam up and eat.

That's all I've got.

Here is a gratuitous shot of Sam Heughan.

You're welcome.

Blogging the Menu: Lurong Day 6

Last night was a pretty good one, but boy was I sleepy at the end of it.  I barely made it home (singing along to the radio at top volume with the window down) and had to sleep for a bit before going to the box.  I got almost exactly an hour, then went to get my WODs in.  Only finished WOD 1, then helped videotape a friend's WOD and realized I was too tired to do the second one.  Still have a bit of time to do it, and Monday or Tuesday is looking good.  I'll make a bigger effort to get to the box to do WOD 3 before leaving for the Adirondacks on Thursday.  So here's what a day that begins at midnight looks like when you throw in a workout.

Started with leftover eggplant lasagna.

This is really quite good.  I'll use more eggplant next time.

My 3am snack was some peaches and raspberries from Costco.  These peaches are just perfect.  I can't remember the last time I had one so nice.  Not at all pithy, and not so juicy that you end up a total mess. Look at this container full of summer.  Just look at it.

Better than dessert.

I had some tea and cashews and dates later in the morning.  I did put some honey in my tea, but I'm finding I need very little to get the desired effect.

Mmmm.  Candy.

I woke up slightly later than planned to go to the box, so I just mashed a Larabar into my face on the way.  Nothing like working out at what amounts to 3am.  When I got home I was ravenous, so went for my pre-made option (with a runny egg).  Have I mentioned I love my electric egg cooker?  And the person that sent it to me?  Who is clearly some kind of saint?

Omnomnomnomnom.

Then I went to sleep.  For about 6 hours.  I wasn't going to eat "dinner", but I was so hungry that I thought it unwise to wait until midnight to eat again.  Husband made Moroccan meatballs.

With cauli rice.

This is a perennial favorite.  Lurong is bringing out a lot of old favorites.  We got lazy over the summer with menu planning, and found ourselves eating a lot of the same things over and over...and having that daily "Shit, what's for dinner" panic that lead to the menu board in the first place.  This has been great, because we always have wonderful leftovers, we waste very little produce, and we get something delicious and healthy for dinner every night.  

I got my measurements done today, and I have my goals.  Getting my waist below 30 and my hips below 40 are tops on the list.  I'm already down 4lbs, so that's a great start towards my 20lb goal.  I've been tempted to cheat a few times since starting, but so far have stayed the course and resisted (stupid cheats...PopTarts or muffins that are laying around...not anything really good or special).  I hope I can keep that up for the next 7 weeks!  My motivation is high right now, and that's a good place to be.

So upcoming this week are Lurong 2 and 3, an Outlander marathon with a friend, packing for my trip, and jetting off to upstate NY.

Speaking of Outlander.  If you don't have Starz I feel bad for you, because Sam Heughan is crazy hot, and Catriona Balfe used to be a Victoria's Secret model, and this week they had kilted 1700s Highland sex all over the place.  

I mean really.  This isn't even the best view.  The quads on this guy could crack walnuts.  

Off to the salt mine for night #3 of 6!

Blogging the Menu: Lurong Day 5

Last night was a good one, in that there was a little something to do all night (do a few orders, check a little Pyxis, make a couple drips, dose a couple meds, answer a few questions, do a little med rec) but no major fires to put out.  I like that.  Keeps me awake, makes me feel useful, and the night rolls on quickly.

I went out this morning for about 30 minutes of shake out running, nice and slow.  I used the new hospital trail which is pretty nice, but the bridges are a little slick in the morning.  This morning was a humid one, so I really had to watch my step.  For some reason I only brought a long sleeve shirt and was pretty much sweating my balls off 10 minutes in.  I love the cooler fall temps, but 50 degrees isn't THAT cool.

Tomorrow is "hammer through the Lurong WODs" day.  Then home to keep the spawn from killing each other or setting the house on fire while my beloved heads to the Fox Cities Marathon packet pick-up.  He'll be doing the half on Sunday.  I'll be pulling kid duty.  I hope the weather pans out, because he's poised to smash his PR and that would be pretty fucking awesome.

I have tabled my sub-2 ambitions until I can get this extra weight off.  I hate hot weather, and the last two months of training have been so hot that I feel like I'm going backwards.  I'll pick it up in January, and train hard in the cold weather so I can smash the shit out of the Cellcom half, and my PR (set on that course in 2012).  I was 150 pounds when I set that PR (2:12 and change) and I'm riding 167 right now.  They say every 2 pounds lost gains you 1 second per mile.  I mean to test that theory.

On to the menu!

Last night I had my midnight meal right on time (I was hungry before that, but eating too early sets me up for failure.)  Leftover curry cauli rice and chicken.

Better the second day.

I try to have my 3am meal be something sweet.  It keeps me from raiding the break room (where, incidentally, the carcasses of several donuts, bagels, and muffins were lying around).  Berries fit the bill, with a couple of HBE for protein.

Perfect.

I also had an apple at one point, and 3 dates that I forgot to photograph until I was licking their sticky remains off my fingers.  Oops.

Breakfast at 6:30am was Paleo "cereal" with unsweetened applesauce and a teaspoonful of honey.  I paired this with a mug of mint tea, as I planned to go straight to sleep when I got home after my run.

This is a perfect oatmeal sub. 

I was a little hungry when I got home, so I had a few grapes before going to sleep.  I got about 6 hours (with 2 breaks to let the dog out) and woke up this afternoon to get the spaghetti sauce going.  This recipe (from Well Fed 2) requires 2 hours of simmering, but comes together pretty rapidly so it's not terribly labor intensive.  I don't make meatballs as indicated in the recipe, I just break up milk Italian sausage straight into the sauce.  There's balsamic vinegar and cocoa in the recipe, which gives it both richness and acidity.  It's lovely.

The wine is mostly for show.  I only had a few sips.

The kids actually ate this really well tonight (sometimes they don't-who knows why).  We took the dog for a walk, and now the little bitch is barking her fool head off at her reflection in the front window.  Sigh.  Someone is always making noise in this house.  I'm not sure why I try to read or watch TV.  

Hopefully we'll have another good night.  I'm looking forward to having apple carrot hash before my WODs tomorrow and then getting to sleep until it's time to go to work.  Ahhhhh....sleep.

Blogging the Menu: Lurong Day 4

Yeah.  I slept through my alarm this morning.  So no workout.  I did walk over 13000 steps today, so there's that.  I have my gear packed to get 30-45 minutes of running in on the trail by the hospital after my shift tomorrow.  Saturday I'll go to the box with a buddy and make up the 2 WODs we missed and get our measurements/weight done.  Yay and stuff.

I hate getting weighed fully dressed.  I want to shout that THAT NUMBER IS NOT MY NUMBER!!  Goddamn it, these are DANSKOS!  It's so stupid, because it's not like 3 pounds of clothes makes a big difference in determining my health, but it does put me in a different decade of numbers and it makes me stabby.

So breakfast was pretty delayed today and it was also pretty basic.  Eggs, bacon, and coffee with almond milk.  I really dig vanilla almond milk (unsweetened, of course) in my coffee.  It's really tasty, and I'm normally a black coffee girl.

This Maplewood bacon is the shit. The. Best. Bacon.

Snack was pretty basic, too.

Look familiar?

My plan was to nap today since I work tonight, but that didn't happen for a variety of reasons.  I did however "skip" lunch (ie I ate what amounted to a heavy snack) because if I daysleep and still eat all the meals I end up eating six meals in a 24 hour period and that's just too much damn food.  I'm trying to get smaller here, people.

So, lunch.

I also had a few cashews later on as I was getting pretty hungry as the dinner hour approached.  Also a venison stick, which I didn't photograph.

Thanks, Costco!

Squash was on sale at Festy the other day so I loaded up on the butternut and we had Beef and Bacon Cottage Pie for supper.  Holy shit I love this recipe.  Simple, simple, simple and SO FUCKING GOOD.  Also, the kids won't eat squash so more for me, motherfuckers. It's from the 21 Day Sugar Detox Cookbook.  How do you not have this book yet?

Get in my belly.

I finished the day with a few prunes, packed up my lunch, watched The Biggest Loser (without eating a sleeve of Oreos) and got changed for work.  Day one in the salt mine.  Only 6 shifts this week as I took Wednesday off for Ragnar Adirondacks.  Huzzah!  Off to the land of foliage and Zestar apples!

Day 4 done.  Hope my resolve stands up overnight.  I am armed with much food, good coffee, and mint tea. 

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!  Or close the wall up with our English dead!

If you get that reference we are still friends.

Blogging the Menu: Lurong Day 3

Lalalalalaaaaa Day 3 down.  Tomorrow night I go back on at work, but not before hitting the gym and getting some other things in order.  Today I did a fair amount of cooking, which means I'll have lots of good leftovers for the next couple of days at work.  I have plenty of grapes and apples, and tomorrow I'll hard cook a bunch of eggs to bring along as well.  So far so good.  I rested the last couple of days (though I did do a fair amount of walking) and I feel pretty good.  We have an HRA for the husband's employer in the morning.  Always interesting to get a peek at the bloodwork every year.  Last year my numbers were so good the employee health nurse summed it up with "I don't know what you're doing, but whatever it is keep it up!" and that was before Lurong.  I kind of wish I would've gone in for a follow up set.  One of these days.

One of my boys was up six times during the night with a cough.  If you're keeping score that means I was up six times as well.  Little children would be much easier if they would listen to reason.  If you have a cough, great hiccuping sobs only make it worse, right?  Right.  Try explaining that to a four year old.  Goes over like a lead balloon.  So tonight he's doped up on dextro, rubbed down with mentholatum, and the humidifier is running on high.  Fingers crossed.

This morning I made apple carrot sausage hash.  This is good shit.  Love this recipe.  It's our "already made and ready to go" breakfast recipe of the week.  I'm going to have one of these per week in order to avoid eggs-and-bacon burnout.

Add a runny egg and an almond milk latte and you're set.

Snack was pretty simple.  Big wad o' grapes.

Crunchy and delicious.

Had a fair amount of Tandoori chicken left over, but didn't feel like eating it Plain Jane again, so instead I whipped up a little curry rice with the pre-made cauli rice.  Almonds, raisins, pineapple, onion, curry, salt, and pepper came together pretty well with the leftover chicken.  Damn.  My lunches are far more interesting when I'm at home.  I did make 2 portions of this, though, so I have a container full for work.

So fucking awesome.

This afternoon I went for a SweeTango while I took a little break from my busy hands project.  It's the collar and shoulder increases for a cable detailed cardigan.  So far it's coming along nicely.  It'll be seamless since it's top down, and if I keep at it I should have it finished by the end of the challenge.

I love fall.  Apples and sweaters.  Love it.

I made eggplant lasagna for the first time this afternoon.  Eggplant, spinach, mushrooms, and homemade meat sauce.  It was really quite tasty.  Of course the kids were having none of it except the meat.  Fortunately we didn't waste much on them.  Boxed up some leftovers for lunches later in the week.  I also had my 6oz pour of Cab, which made me positively silly.  I'm officially a cheap date again.

Eat. Your. Veg.

Had a couple of prunes to kill a sweet craving this evening.  Love these things.  I buy them in bulk at Costco.

Sweetness without the work of de-pitting.

Tomorrow morning will be interesting as we're supposed to go to the HRA fasted.  I'll have to eat something before CrossFit, but I can't skip tomorrow since it's Lurong WOD #2 and I already have one to make up this weekend sometime.  The hardest bit will be not eating after the WOD untill I'm done being poked and prodded at 8:30.  Going to be the longest 2 hours of my life.  

Now it's time for bed.  I'm spent.  On to tomorrow!

Blogging the Menu: Lurong Days 1&2

It's Lurong time!

Ah....Lurong.  When the box requires you to put your money where your mouth is and actually walk the full-on Paleo walk for 8ish weeks.  Last year it ended up being a big success for me.  I lost 11 pounds and a bunch of inches.  I felt great, slept great, and looked pretty fucking great at the end of it.  So with my goals achieved I rode off into the Paleo sunset, right?

Silly rabbits, I have an unhealthy relationship with food!  Of course I went straight back to eating garbage and feeling like shit.  It's what I do.  My middle name is self-sabotage.

In my defense, I do eat relatively cleanly most of the time.  I just eat a lot.  A lot. And if I have a weak moment and indulge in something like...I don't know...a room full of motherfucking cake (thanks, co-workers) I have a tendency to eat myself to the point of illness.  Then starts the sneaky hate spiral.  I hate my body, so I want to punish it.  Punishing it with exercise would be productive so instead I punish it with more shitty food until my head aches and I can't sleep and I'm massively grumpy.  Makes tons of sense, right?

I've discovered embedded memes.  You're welcome.

Anyhoo...the Lurong showing up again gives me the chance to recommit to a healthier lifestyle and I'm jumping on it.  What's not to love.  Tons of support and commiseration, forced CF workouts so I can't slack because I'm a lazy whore, and the possibility of prizes.  I set a personal goal of zero cheats for the entire challenge period.  Zero tolerance, people.  Zero.

So the challenge began on Monday, while we were still in Portland.  Hooray for travelling with dietary restrictions.  I should mention that we went to Portland to run back to back half marathons.  Which we did successfully.  We also rewarded ourselves with fried food, beer, and VooDoo doughnuts.  OMG VooDoo doughnuts.  By the time Monday dawned I was basically in a food and alcohol induced coma.

View from the aerial tram.  Pretty cool ride.

We had breakfast at the hotel, which was a real breakfast.  Those are not powdered eggs, and that is fresh pico.  They even had infused water.  Not bad for included-with-the-room fare.

Pico with jalapeno is nomtastic.

After we took the aerial tram and poked around the city a bit, we headed back to the airport to return our itty bitty car (Kia Soul-actually a nice car for the weekend) and get through security as we had no idea what that was going to look like.  Return, check-in, and security went pretty smoothly.  Lots of hipsters in Portland, and it appears many of them work for the TSA.  We walked down the terminal until we saw a place with an acceptable menu.  This is a grilled chicken breast with bacon and guac with a side salad and balsamic.  It was quite good.

This was a sandwich that I ordered without bun or cheese.  

Almost anything can be modified.

Our flight was at 2 and we landed in Chicago at 7:45pm, so we sort of skipped over the dinner hour.  Instead I had an apple, a Larabar, and some jerky.  It worked.

Sweet and satisfying.

It was nice to be home.  Less nice was waking up to a flock of whiny children who were less excited to see me and more interested in bitching about having eggs as they wanted cereal, then having to dress my 7 year old because 30 minutes to brush teeth, pee, dress, and comb one's hair is simply not enough time. 

Shoulder bacon from our pig via Maplewood.  Drool.

I had a lot of crap going on this morning and into the afternoon.  Girl child to school, grocery store with boys, then pick up the dog at the kennel, home to make lunch, walk boys to school, walk dog around, then come home and flop down into a chair with dog in lap.  So I had 2 hard boiled eggs, a venison stick,  and an apple for lunch.  Which I forgot to photograph.  Sue me.

Dinner was a new recipe from the 21 Day Sugar Detox cookbook.  Tandoori chicken skewers.  I riced a shitload of cauliflower this afternoon to have for the week and I had some of that with my chicken.  It was pretty damn good if I do say so myself.  My house smells a bit like a fire, since I grilled the skewers on a cast iron grill pan instead of outside.  Totally worth it.

I feel like I should have some veg...oh wait.

So this evening I'm fairly full.  Didn't get to walk the dog her usual 1-2 miles as one child decided he had to pee when we were about 400m from the house.  Then when we restarted we got to about that same point and a different child suddenly had an insurmountable belly ache (I should mention none of them would eat the chicken) and we headed back.  Come to think of it, I guess we did get a mile in a roundabout way.  Regardless, I didn't burn off my dinner in a meaningful way.  I'm craving sweet now, so here's my solution.  

6oz red wine, per Lurong rules.

Prunes.  Sweet like candy, soothes my soul.

I sent the spawn to bed early because they were being little asshats in spite of practically falling asleep on the couch before dinner.  I had a conversation with the boys' 4K teacher while we waited for the older kids this afternoon.  She remarked that they were very independent, sitting at different tables and making individual friends.  She also said that they were very polite and excellent listeners.

As she was telling me this I had to pull Charlie off of my leg and inform him that Mommy is not a jungle gym.  Polite.  Excellent listeners.  She's a nice lady, but is clearly high.

Two days in.  Feeling strong.  I'm sure this will be all sunshine and rainbows.

Blogging the Menu: Questionable Choices

Last night was a good one, in that I wasn't tired and had enough of this and that to do to move time along nicely.  I don't mind low volume nights as it usually means everyone is mending and not crashing, but sometimes it makes keeping busy a challenge.  There's always something to do, but it's not always the most exciting thing!

The menu was pretty standard fare.

Leftovers.  Meh.

Time got away from me and I didn't end up eating my main meal until 1am.  This ended up being fine as I pretty much segued right into my snack.

Look familiar?

Around 4am I was hard core jonesing for an apple, so I fed the craving.

L'honeycrisp

Breakfast was a smoothie at around 6:30am.  I have my little single serve blender on the counter at work to make this easier.  This morning it was cherries, banana, almond milk, and protein powder.  Pretty tasty.

Weird color, though.

I slept like the dead once again, and when I woke up at 2:15pm I was feeling peckish, so I chomped down a jalapeno cheddar beef stick from Maplewood Meats.  I have a pound of these that I'm slowly metering out.  Need to finish them up this week, though, as they are NOT Lurong legal (cheese, you know).

It was much larger than this when I started.

I was kind of fixated on SweeTangos this afternoon, so I called the Apple Store to see if they were harvesting in Door County and heard the magic words "Oh, SweeTangos are all we have right now!  We're open until 5!" so of course I darted out the door like a heroin addict in need of a fix.  The Apple Store lady said they'll be harvesting these delicious little devils for another month or more and the Honeycrisp will be in at the end of the month.  WINNING.  I might make the hike to DC for more, as the firsts they sell in the Wood Orchard Market are the size of a baby's head and are picture perfect.  I walked out with 9 pounds of apple-y crack.  

Best $20 I ever spent.  Cheaper than the grocery store (if you can even find them, sucka)

I might have broken the bag open and just started jamming apples in my face right there in the parking lot.  I don't need your judgement, Judgy McJudgerson.

ERMAHGERD APPLE!

Headed home with a belly full of apple and sticky fingers and decided to keep up the Door County of it all by pouring myself a glass of cherry wine.  All you wine snobs can suck it.  Cherry wine is fucking delightful.

This totally counts as red wine.  Fuck you.

So dinner was cheeseburgers and chips.  I totally ate a bun.  OMG A BUN.  IS THAT EVEN PALEO, BRO?  No.  No it's not.  But I wasn't in the mood to knife and fork it, mkay?  It is weird that I had chips twice in two days.  I'm really not that into chips.

It was good.  Buns are overrated.

Tomorrow I need to get the menu together for our first month of Lurong.  Time to haul out my paleo cookbooks and recall my favorites.  I'm going to need to lock down portion sizes this time around.  Last year just cleaning up my diet let me drop a few pounds.  This year I'm going to have to watch the portions to achieve my goals.  

My meals are about to get much more interesting and I'm looking forward to changing things up a bit again.  I had a month of Boring Ass Shit and it worked for stage one of achieving my goals, I'm closer than I was, but the week of "eat whatevs" was a warning that I can't keep that up for too long without losing my shit, so it's time to branch out again.

Yay cooking!