Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Pests!

Hmm..bet you are wondering what "pests" I am referring too. No, it is not the girls (LOL). As you know last night the family, yes, we ended up taking the girls too, anyways, we went to the hockey game. Go Bolts! So, our seats were amazing because we were about six rows back from the glass near the goal side. The players actually looked like adults and every sound made on the ice was magnified. It was amazing! However, one row behind us sat this "pest" and I use the term loosely, and this "pest" was loud and kept talking throughout the entire game. I could tune him out for the most part and enjoy the action taking place in front of us. Oh and did I tell you how close we were, so amazing, I saw my favorite player, Ryan Malone up close and personal when he slammed into the glass a few times, wow! So, the game progresses and adrenalin is flowing throughout the Forum, we score a goal, they score a goal, and by the end of the third period it is a tied game 2 to 2. We now are in OT (overtime), a few close calls on both sides and one time breath held when the opposing team tried to score one on us, but in the end it went to a "shoot out". By now almost everyone is chanting "Tampa Bay" and the Forum is on fire.

Okay, so here is where the "pest" now becomes a jerk! As the crowd is cheering "Tampa Bay" he proceeds to drop the "F" Bomb in reference to the home team. Now, I understand people come to games who are for the opposing team, and I am all for those types of spectators. Be passionate about your team, go crazy, however, be respectful. This jerk, however, was not cheering for the opposing team either. He was looking to start trouble, or make a name for himself, so he was downright disrespectful. Now mind you I have both my 15 year old and 6 year old right there in ear shot of him. Anyways, I did my best to ignore his presence and focus on the game. The "shoot out" was over and neither team scored so now we went into "sudden death", and yes, you know it we scored and won the game, oh and the winning goal was shot by none other than ...drum roll please..okay..Ryan Malone!!! So, the evil in me came out because I turned around as soon as he scored the goal and looked the jerk right in the face and said, "Tampa Bay, what!" Oh yea WINNER!!! Then walked off! My advice to all those people who go to sporting events just to cause trouble and be "pests", STAY HOME!

Update to the Scale

Update to yesterday's blog on my daily goals. I accomplished the exercise goal. As soon as I got home from work I made the girls go outside and play, I mean it was 70ish degrees yesterday, no reason for them to be in the house playing video games. So, after the girls left I made it upstairs,put on my workout clothes, and came down and did 44 minutes on the Wii with Active Personal Trainer. I burned 204 kcals. Oh am I feeling it today!

As for my second goal. I almost accomplished it. I did not eat anything non-healthy at the hockey game, however, we did go to dinner before the game and my dinner was semi-healthy. I believe there was too much dressing on the chicken salad. I've uploaded the pictures of my meal choice for last night's dinner, however, they seem to be upside down, oops! I should let you know I only ate 2 wedges of the flatbread with pears and Garzonzola and about 1/2 the chicken salad, needed to get in my protein.


Spring Salad, flat bread wedges with pear and Gorgonzola cheese

Chicken Salad (with a little too much dressing)

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

The Scale

The dreaded scale. I am a prisoner, I must admit. My day can start on a high or low depending on the number on that scale. I know logically that should not happen. However, when in my life has logic outweighed emotion. So, just as every morning the first thing I do is stand on the scale, and yes, wouldn't you know it, it says I've gained weight, 2 lbs to be exact. Now I now it is getting close to that dreaded time of month and my body is probably retaining some water, but still the numbers don't lie. Yesterday, I had all intentions of working out when I got home from work, but when I walked in the door my living room was cluttered, so I spent my energy cleaning it and then I made dinner. I was upset at the fact that I worked all day and then came home to pick up after the girls that my stubborn side set in and I did not do my workout. Guess one could call that self sabotage. I need to work on not letting myself get in my way. I have been researching other blogs that deal with weight loss struggles and it seems as if there is a common thread, people are posting daily goals. Something I had not thought of, so I am thinking about doing that. I have also noticed that people are posting pictures of their meals as well as posting what they ate. Both interesting concepts.

Tonight hubby and I are suppose to go to a hockey game. I try to make good food choices when we go out, but no doubt it will probably be late when we eat. My willpower usually is weakened by the smells as soon as we walk into the Forum, however, I am going to eat a healthy small meal before we leave, hopefully that will help some. I plan on doing a 20 minutes workout this afternoon as well. Let's see if I can keep those two goals for today.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Baking 101

As most, if not all of you know, I am no baker. I tend to stay away from making the sweets because I have no will power. However, I have been examining my girls' food intake and noticed that their diet does seem to be lacking in the sweets department. Anyways, I had some Granny Smith apples that needed to be used before they expired so I decided I would try my hand at making a "crisp". I cut up 3 apples in bite size pieces and placed them in a shallow pie dish and added one can of whole cranberries, and a dash of cinnamon. In a saucepan over low heat I combined 3/4 stick of unsalted butter with about 1 cup of brown sugar substitute and a splash of vanilla extract, mixed until well blended. In a bowl I had about 1 1/2 cups of quick cook oats. I added the ingredients from the saucepan to the bowl of oats and mixed together until all the oats were coated in the mixture. Then, I poured the mixture over the apples and cranberries. Placed the "crisp" in a preheated, guess it would have been good to mention that at the beginning, oh well, as I was saying placed the "crisp" in a preheated 350 degree oven and let it cook for about 45-50 minutes. Once it was cooled I served it with sugar-free whipped topping. It was just sweet enough and still healthy. I did a good job if I say so myself. I think I might reconsider the no baking idea. Let me know if you try it and what you and your family think.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Senseless Matter

So I was driving home from my accounting class tonight, and can I say I love this class and my instructor. Okay, now that I did, let us move on, so as I was saying I was driving home tonight and the strangest thoughts popped into my head one such thought was "perception". For instance there was this hockey game last night, side note Lightning 3 Capitals 0, and there are two people one of which had to watch the hockey game on DVR because she was a good student and went to her lecture class while the other person had the great opportunity to see the game live. Well during this game a fight broke out, imagine a fight during a hockey game, I digress, so the person that attended the game saw that the fight had been instigated by a Lightning player because she feels it was a vendetta being played out. The other person who re-watched the fight over and over, again thanks to DVR says nope not true, that it was the Capital player that started the fight because he pushed into the Lightning player when there was no call for it. See perception..what a funny concept. We both agreed that there was a fight, however, we disagree as to who instigated the event. The nonsensical information that pops into a person's head while on a twenty minute ride home. 

Morning Routine

T
oday started out just as any other normal weekday. The alarm clock went off way to early and Meagan was the first one out of bed and getting into trouble. Normally I would be out of bed yelling and screaming for her to stop doing what she was doing and to get dressed; however, this morning it was too cold outside to get out of bed and tend to her, so I let her behavior go. She did end up getting dressed for school and brushing her hair without too much redirection. We then not so happily, on my part, make our way downstairs and finish the morning preparations for school. About twenty minutes later after getting bundled up in jackets we head to her bus stop. Not a long wait and her bus showed up almost on time. She looked back at me and waved as she got on her bus while talking to her girlfriend. I quickly made for home and was gearing up for round two, Samantha.

H
eaven help me, for she is like her mother when I was her age, fifteen. A team of wild horses could not drag me from my bed if I did not want them too. Unfortunate for me, Samantha is the same way, so waking her up in the morning for school is quite a chore. Needless, I pulled back her blanket to let the cold air kiss her good morning. She was up a few minutes later, not too pleased. I glanced at her, told her to get her morning list done and went back downstairs to enjoy my few minutes of quiet. As I was eating cereal and watching General Hospital, got to love DVR these days, she comes sluggishly downstairs. She worked on getting her books and lunch together and then she too was gone to start her day.