Oh well, at least I can buy 2 bottles of wine for the price of one cocoa almond spread.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Ain't nothing but the real thing baby...
Trader Joe's hooked me with their pretty labeling and great prices...but you can't beat Nutella. You can't. And yet somehow Nutella has 10 less calories per serving and 20 less calories from fat. A few grams less sugar too...no idea how because it tastes sweeter than the imposter on the left. I wanted to love it, almonds are good for you... and that would give me an excuse to eat it regularly ;)
Oh well, at least I can buy 2 bottles of wine for the price of one cocoa almond spread.
Oh well, at least I can buy 2 bottles of wine for the price of one cocoa almond spread.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Saturday mornings
Saturday after my dentist appointment (no cavities!) I stopped by my Sister's to see the kiddos and bum a cup of coffee (and cookies!). Everyone was still jammied up and alternating between Elmo and showing me all their new Christmas goodies.
Get out of my picture Jackson!
He either adores his Sister or misses the spotlight
Hope for baby blues in my own child(less) future
Perching
Mmmm...spotlight I suppose ;)
Did Spider Man have reindeer slippers?
Monday, January 16, 2012
The golden rule of winter
When it snows, you bake.
Yesterday we woke up to some snowflakes falling from the sky. I cursed a little because no matter what I will have to go to work today. It's payroll and people don't understand not getting paid because of that one time I was stuck on a hill sliding backwards with my car door open. I'm one of those people you don't want to drive in the snow and I'll admit it.
But yesterday it wasn't sticking much so we went grocery shopping. Of course while we were in the store it really came down and the roads were covered. When we got home it looked like this...
Yesterday we woke up to some snowflakes falling from the sky. I cursed a little because no matter what I will have to go to work today. It's payroll and people don't understand not getting paid because of that one time I was stuck on a hill sliding backwards with my car door open. I'm one of those people you don't want to drive in the snow and I'll admit it.
But yesterday it wasn't sticking much so we went grocery shopping. Of course while we were in the store it really came down and the roads were covered. When we got home it looked like this...
Do you like our winter fencing? We live downhill from our neighbor and get a lot of water runoff in the winter...the fence is to keep the dogs out of that side of the yard.
Issy loves jumping back an forth over it. Pointless
This looks like a dumb idea no?
Whenever Bryan builds a rip roaring fire the dogs camp out in front of it
I baked these nutty molasses cookies because it was snowing...and that's what you do when it snows
You must make them...the sweeteners are 2 dates and a 2 tablespoons honey
I did add these crystallized ginger chips left over from Christmas...I love crystallized ginger
Cookies, tea and....Pawn Stars
It was almost a perfect day ;)
How was your weekend?
Friday, January 13, 2012
Friday the 13th
I'm blaming this odd week on Friday the 13th, sorry for my lack of enthusiasm. I was thinking I was going to do something really exciting this weekend so I could report back on Monday. I wanted to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...Bryan wants to see Beauty and the Beast 3D. No joke. Guess we'll just stay home and hang out. I did manage to weasel the pilot first few episodes of Dawson's Creek into his Netflix queue though, he did not like that ;)
What are you up to this weekend?
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Mind games
Oh it has been a loooong week for sure, but just stopping in to say hi. I've been getting up early for my 2nd week of P90x and working late. This is one of those times I wish there were an extra day in the week and not just the weekend.
Yep you heard me right, I started P90x last week. Even though I didn't make it through my 30 days unlimited Bikram yoga challenge...I made it 14 days on that one...I've decided to push even further and try for 90 days. Ha! I'm laughing at myself too. I know, it's rare to make it past a month, but that would be a month more of exercise than I would have done otherwise.
So far so good, once I decided to suck it up and press play. I tried to make excuses like...I really don't want huge muscular thighs like the people in the video, and I don't want to bulk up my arms, yada yada. But after some googling I've decided that these people work out for a living, and I would have to do a heck of a lot of squats to get thighs like that. Then I broke down the days of arms (with weights) in the P90X lean routine and it is really only like 8 days out of 90. So I upped the weight this morning because Michelle Obama did not get those arms by lounging around the White House.
Mind games, that is what I have to do to get myself motivated. Especially because I want to punch Tony Horton in the face and not because of the routine, but because he is so obnoxious. Working out and eating well seem to go hand in hand for me. As long as I've made an effort to move my body that day, I'm more conscious of what I'm eating. Why erase all the good work you just did?
What sort of things do you threaten yourself with for follow through? Motivate me!
Yep you heard me right, I started P90x last week. Even though I didn't make it through my 30 days unlimited Bikram yoga challenge...I made it 14 days on that one...I've decided to push even further and try for 90 days. Ha! I'm laughing at myself too. I know, it's rare to make it past a month, but that would be a month more of exercise than I would have done otherwise.
So far so good, once I decided to suck it up and press play. I tried to make excuses like...I really don't want huge muscular thighs like the people in the video, and I don't want to bulk up my arms, yada yada. But after some googling I've decided that these people work out for a living, and I would have to do a heck of a lot of squats to get thighs like that. Then I broke down the days of arms (with weights) in the P90X lean routine and it is really only like 8 days out of 90. So I upped the weight this morning because Michelle Obama did not get those arms by lounging around the White House.
Mind games, that is what I have to do to get myself motivated. Especially because I want to punch Tony Horton in the face and not because of the routine, but because he is so obnoxious. Working out and eating well seem to go hand in hand for me. As long as I've made an effort to move my body that day, I'm more conscious of what I'm eating. Why erase all the good work you just did?
What sort of things do you threaten yourself with for follow through? Motivate me!
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
grain free granola
Bryan found some unopened cereal in the cupboard from 2010. We gave it to the chickens next door. Lately I've been making a batch of grain free granola using nuts and seeds and it is so much better than a banana in the morning. I eat it over vanilla coconut milk from TJ's.
Here's my latest mix but you can do whatever you want because its a free country. I forgot coconut flakes this time around.
Grain Free Granola
1 cups raw almonds
1 cup pecans or walnuts
1 cup each sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds (raw and unsalted)
3/4 cup each raisins and orange flavored dried cranberries
1/2 cup flax seeds
2 scoops protein powder (mine is pumpkin seed protein powder from PCC)
1/4 cup each maple syrup and coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
1 small container of cinnamon apple sauce
Any spices you'd like (cinnamon, ginger, pumpkin pie spice)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor pulse larger nuts a few times. Combine everything in a large bowl. Pour melted coconut oil, maple syrup and apple sauce over the rest of the ingredients. Mix well. Spread granola onto a large baking sheet and cook for 30-40 minutes. Mixing around occasionally. Let the granola cool, then break into small clusters (if yours clusters..mine doesn't). Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Don't make this mistake
How was your weekend? Mine was lazy. Friday I had a nice dinner with my dance friends and the rest of the weekend was spent snuggling with a sick dog (he's better now, no clue what was wrong) and packing up Christmas stuff. I didn't take any pictures.
I was cleaning up my inbox and came across an email I saved from Mark's Daily Apple. I meant to share it a long time ago and forgot about it. It reminded me a little of my new years resolution so I thought I'd finally post it. Long, but worth the read if you have some time.
This week a friend of mine lost her mother. A year and a half ago she’d been diagnosed with bone cancer. Despite numerous surgeries and treatments, the cancer continued to spread widely and was found in her brain two months ago. After accepting hospice a week ago, she died at home with her family. She was 57. By all accounts my friend’s mother was an active, youthful, gentle woman. “She lived quietly, with meaning and purpose, and loved deeply,” a close relative shared at the funeral. Her death got me thinking, as these events will, about the relative shortness of life – even for those who live to a ripe old age far beyond this woman’s years. How will any of us feel about how we’ve lived our lives when our own time comes? Have we taken ownership of every moment and accepted our choices – compromises, triumphs, screw-ups, and all? Will we feel like we’ve lived life on our own terms? Or, more tragically, will we realize we’ve wasted precious time always blaming others, blaming circumstances while we put off creating the healthy and fulfilling life we’d always wanted?
We all know people who have relegated themselves to living some half-developed life, meanwhile nursing a long-past resentment or irrational choice that continually holds them back. As a health coach and trainer, I see it all the time. Maybe they blame their upbringing – the habits they feel are too ingrained or what they see as the insurmountable challenge of getting beyond obesity and/or health conditions they’ve accepted over the years. Some people feel they’re too far gone to get up again.
Others blame their uncooperative spouses or their kids and the chaos of family life. Still other people tell themselves progress just isn’t possible given their financial situation, work schedule, or aggregate life demands. They’re already juggling too much and can’t give up any part of the routine. They can’t find it in themselves to simplify their act, so to speak, or just renounce it entirely to search for a better way. In other words, some folks can’t find their way out of the box because they refuse to visualize anything but the enclosure around them.
Maybe it’s unconscious irrationality, as Albert Ellis suggested most of us possess in some regard, or maybe it’s a more intentional, embittered blame. Either way, it’s passing the buck. It’s giving up on your own life, health, and chance at happiness. How is this gratifying?
Blame admittedly allows us to languish in the presumed comfort of bad habits. It allows us to wallow in laziness, to accept inertia for the sake of ongoing bitterness. Yet, blame always betrays us in the end. Behind the resignation is painful longing, the essential, enduring instinct to live fully. Whatever excuses we tell ourselves day after day, the sense of loss – of being locked out of our own lives – is still there. It’s a grief that leaves us hollowed out and estranged from life in general.
Occasionally, there are legitimate circumstances that can intuitively call us to slow down, to turn inward, to stop on the side of the road for a time. We lose a spouse or a parent or a child. We face a severe illness or injury that imposes extensive and sometimes grueling treatments. These events can leave us physically detached and emotionally disoriented. It’s a natural, albeit individual, response. When we’ve allowed ourselves the time and space to get our bearings again, we’re likely faced with an equally difficult task – reinventing our lives and well-being in a new and challenging context. Some things in life we can change and some we can’t, but with time we can forge a way again.
In finally giving up the blame game, I think we make peace with the complexity and difficulty of life. We shake off the last of our excuses and let go of the martyr role. The fact is, every one of us works around day-to-day chaos and frustration. We will all face desperation and grief of some sort in our lifetime. No one here promised anything different. It’s the rest of life – the chance to live fully and gratifyingly in our bodies, in our relationships, in our vocations (whether it’s what we get paid for or not), in our explorations within this lifetime – that we get to grab hold of and find joy in – for everything it’s worth.
Life isn’t always fair (my friend’s mother being one example of this). We don’t get to choose every circumstance. We don’t get to control the people around us. Likewise, we don’t get all the time in the world to wait for the ideal circumstances to come around.
Life, as we will eventually come to understand (hopefully before it’s too late), will never be perfect. It will never be easy. There will always be obstacles, annoyances, and limitations to contend with on the path to health and well-being. Regardless of what our lives look like next to someone else’s, ours is still the one we go home with at the end of the day. Ours is the one we get to live – for all its possibility as well as challenge. What will you make of it today?
Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-blame-game/#ixzz1ivt2gwPn
I was cleaning up my inbox and came across an email I saved from Mark's Daily Apple. I meant to share it a long time ago and forgot about it. It reminded me a little of my new years resolution so I thought I'd finally post it. Long, but worth the read if you have some time.
This week a friend of mine lost her mother. A year and a half ago she’d been diagnosed with bone cancer. Despite numerous surgeries and treatments, the cancer continued to spread widely and was found in her brain two months ago. After accepting hospice a week ago, she died at home with her family. She was 57. By all accounts my friend’s mother was an active, youthful, gentle woman. “She lived quietly, with meaning and purpose, and loved deeply,” a close relative shared at the funeral. Her death got me thinking, as these events will, about the relative shortness of life – even for those who live to a ripe old age far beyond this woman’s years. How will any of us feel about how we’ve lived our lives when our own time comes? Have we taken ownership of every moment and accepted our choices – compromises, triumphs, screw-ups, and all? Will we feel like we’ve lived life on our own terms? Or, more tragically, will we realize we’ve wasted precious time always blaming others, blaming circumstances while we put off creating the healthy and fulfilling life we’d always wanted?
We all know people who have relegated themselves to living some half-developed life, meanwhile nursing a long-past resentment or irrational choice that continually holds them back. As a health coach and trainer, I see it all the time. Maybe they blame their upbringing – the habits they feel are too ingrained or what they see as the insurmountable challenge of getting beyond obesity and/or health conditions they’ve accepted over the years. Some people feel they’re too far gone to get up again.
Others blame their uncooperative spouses or their kids and the chaos of family life. Still other people tell themselves progress just isn’t possible given their financial situation, work schedule, or aggregate life demands. They’re already juggling too much and can’t give up any part of the routine. They can’t find it in themselves to simplify their act, so to speak, or just renounce it entirely to search for a better way. In other words, some folks can’t find their way out of the box because they refuse to visualize anything but the enclosure around them.
Maybe it’s unconscious irrationality, as Albert Ellis suggested most of us possess in some regard, or maybe it’s a more intentional, embittered blame. Either way, it’s passing the buck. It’s giving up on your own life, health, and chance at happiness. How is this gratifying?
Blame admittedly allows us to languish in the presumed comfort of bad habits. It allows us to wallow in laziness, to accept inertia for the sake of ongoing bitterness. Yet, blame always betrays us in the end. Behind the resignation is painful longing, the essential, enduring instinct to live fully. Whatever excuses we tell ourselves day after day, the sense of loss – of being locked out of our own lives – is still there. It’s a grief that leaves us hollowed out and estranged from life in general.
Occasionally, there are legitimate circumstances that can intuitively call us to slow down, to turn inward, to stop on the side of the road for a time. We lose a spouse or a parent or a child. We face a severe illness or injury that imposes extensive and sometimes grueling treatments. These events can leave us physically detached and emotionally disoriented. It’s a natural, albeit individual, response. When we’ve allowed ourselves the time and space to get our bearings again, we’re likely faced with an equally difficult task – reinventing our lives and well-being in a new and challenging context. Some things in life we can change and some we can’t, but with time we can forge a way again.
In finally giving up the blame game, I think we make peace with the complexity and difficulty of life. We shake off the last of our excuses and let go of the martyr role. The fact is, every one of us works around day-to-day chaos and frustration. We will all face desperation and grief of some sort in our lifetime. No one here promised anything different. It’s the rest of life – the chance to live fully and gratifyingly in our bodies, in our relationships, in our vocations (whether it’s what we get paid for or not), in our explorations within this lifetime – that we get to grab hold of and find joy in – for everything it’s worth.
Life isn’t always fair (my friend’s mother being one example of this). We don’t get to choose every circumstance. We don’t get to control the people around us. Likewise, we don’t get all the time in the world to wait for the ideal circumstances to come around.
Life, as we will eventually come to understand (hopefully before it’s too late), will never be perfect. It will never be easy. There will always be obstacles, annoyances, and limitations to contend with on the path to health and well-being. Regardless of what our lives look like next to someone else’s, ours is still the one we go home with at the end of the day. Ours is the one we get to live – for all its possibility as well as challenge. What will you make of it today?
Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-blame-game/#ixzz1ivt2gwPn
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
