Sushi crazed, among other things

We're falling back into regular routines now that the family is gone. I spent much of the weekend cleaning house, restocking the fridge and pantry and tackling my massive laundry piles. I'm pleased to report I'm all caught up on those, with any luck it'll make it easier to make time to get back into the swing of regular exercise. I've been a slug, I haven't worked out since I hurt my ankle late spring. I'm running out of valid excuses so it's time to get my ass moving. That's first on my to-do list. I also have intent to menu plan for weeknight dinners. I planned to write out a menu for this week, but I failed. Failed so much so that last night I had Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. Nowhere does that fit into my slug no more, get fit plan. But what fun is life without guilty pleasures and tasty eats. I might have also had a tall boy with those wings. What? It was MNF, and I had a coupon for free wings. Now, you can see why my clothes are fitting a bit tighter than I'd like.

That brings me back to my original point. Sushi it's supposed to be healthy right? Well, as long as you choose items without mayo, cream cheese or those that are deep fried. We found a place near the house, Hokaido, they do all sort of rolls and sushi. Even there udon dishes are good. We've been twice for sushi in less than two weeks. We've been sampling their rolls. Yes, even those with all that bad stuff. They're good, What the Hell has been a favorite. It has Spicy Tuna, Cream Cheese, and Jalapeno. (left to right: fried california roll, what the hell, rock n roll, spicy crab).



We had these on our first visit, along with a very tasty udon noodle dish. Dark Horse: spicy crab, tempura shrimp, avo and crunch; Japanese Lasagna: baked crab and cream cheese; and a classic spicy tuna roll.





We've hardly made a dent in the offerings. I anticipate many more return visits so we'll continue to eat our way through the menu. I should probably stray from those less healthy options, but who am I kidding? I'll get what I want. Life's simply too short.

Back at it

Yeah, I got lazy. I fell back into my sluggish ways this winter. Getting sick really derails me every single time. Winter quickly turned into spring and here I am squishy and a bit bigger than I'd like to be. It's taken me a few weeks to amp myself up and get motivated to commit, err, re-commit to exercise and healthy eating.

Eating isn't much of an issue. I eat healthy and make good choices majority of the time. My meals out are the exception. But I'm not willing to compromise on those. I enjoy dining way too much to deprive myself of that happiness. I do need to re-evaluate portion sizes and my overall daily intake. I'm older now, so I'm sure some adjusting is necessary. I'm in the process of tweaking my current daily needs.

Exercise. That's my focus. I'm active on the weekends, but I fall short during the week. I'm chained to my desk 9 hours a day unless I make the effort to get off my ass and exercise on my lunch break. For months I used every excuse imagineable to convince myself to skip those workouts. NO MORE.

Last week, I finally got my head in the game. I'm currently 8/8 for daily exercise. My goal is a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise every day for six weeks. I first did this slug no more challenge last fall. I was able to shed some weight and tone up. I'm hoping my dedication provides me with similar results again.

I don't want to be squishy anymore.

Making Strides

My six week “slug no more” challenge has come to an end. I set out to complete 42 consecutive 30-minute daily workouts and I did it. As a result, I’ve lost one pound and shrunk 2 ½ inches. I had hoped for more, but the scale didn’t budge much. However, considering Restaurant Week fell during this challenge, I gotta say I’m pretty happy with my progress.

I want to lose more weight and inches so I plan to start a new challenge next week. I’ll incorporate more strength training and hope to improve my running. Right now, I can only run in 5-minute intervals before getting exhausted. I want to at least work myself up to completing a 12-minute mile like I was able to do in 2007.

I’m continuing to exercise this week but I didn’t want to take on anything new. Saturday, I will be participating in a Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. I’ve raised over $300 for the event, I want to be sure I’m able to support the cause without any issue. My luck, I’d overdo it and pull a muscle or something equally ridiculous. Next week, though, I'm all over it.

In seven weeks, I hope to report back a few inches smaller and several pounds lighter. At the very least, I’ll settle for more progress.

I have issues

As I mentioned before my clothes have been feeling a bit snug lately. I’ve gained three pounds and an inch all around since January. Not good. Most of the damage has been done in recent months. I slacked off on regular exercise back in April when I got so sick from my allergies. I made an attempt to get back on track in June, but I wasn't committed and I completely abandoned any dedicated exercise until this weekend. Between the whirlwind of visitors, doctor appointments and other daily activities I was beat. No exercise combined with lots of good eats is recipe for disaster. I was a lazy slug. Fortunately, I recognized it before too much damage was done.

Sunday, I started my “slug no more” challenge. I plan to commit myself to 30 minutes of dedicated exercise every day for six weeks. I hope that will get me back on track. It should as long as I don’t go overboard during the greatest week of the year.

Yes, I mean Restaurant Week. It’s less than two weeks away. Excuse me while I wipe away the drool.

We’d love to do a different restaurant everyday like we did last year, but I’m not sure we’ll be able to swing it. Funds are a little tight. However, several menus are $30.09 so we should, at least, be able to sample a few.

Click here for a listing of participants

At first glance these are a few contenders...

Andres
Brand
Cathouse
Company
Circo
Todd’s Unique

Until then, I’m saving my pennies in hopes we can try them all.

See, why I have issues? I can’t even get through one post about exercise without hijacking it by talking wonderfully scrumptious food.

Seriously I need help. I watch Food Network while I exercise on my lunch break. Guess who is on at noon? Paula Deen. The queen of butta, sour cream and mayo. It’s fortunate I’m not a big fan of the latter two, and only use butter to bake. Meals I make at home are usually quite healthful. At least, I got my home cooking under control. Now if I could only control my dining… Nah, who am I kidding? I enjoy it way too much. Exercise is the only answer, even if it’s while watching Paula Deen.

Working for the weekend

It's almost here, at last!

I got spoiled by all the short work weeks around the holidays. These full work weeks have been exhausting. Well, I'm exhausted anyway. Not sure why I've been so tired, but no matter how much sleep I get, it's never enough.

The gym at work is finally done, they finished it back in December. They've added new equipment, now, there is a treadmill, elliptical, recumbent bike, spinning bike, and a weight bench with a slew of weights. They installed a tv and it has cable. I watch Food Network and exercise on my lunch break. So, with that, and the elliptical and recumbent bike at home, I've been working out almost everyday. I've skipped three days since December 27. I've lost 3 pounds since then.

Not sure if it's all the exercising that has wiped me out. I always heard it was supposed to boost your energy, but I can't say it's had that effect on me. Not now, and not in 2007 when I exercised regularly.

At the beginning of the year, Frank told me he wanted to lose 50 pounds by his 30th birthday in December. I told him that I support him wholeheartedly and I would take steps to see that he reaches his goal. Dinners these days have been low cal, low fat or both. So, any recipes I post will likely be of that nature. My diet is better than it's been in months, I'm working hard to keep portions under control, yet, I'm still beat.

Hopefully, it'll pass soon.

Weather has been quite a bit warmer lately, we've been in the 60's the last few days. I think I'll work in the yard this weekend, in addition to running the usual errands and cleaning house.

I've been looking forward to Saturday night for the last few months. We have tickets to see Lisa Lampanelli over at the Pearl inside the Palms. We saw her last year at the House of Blues. She was hysterical. We were in tears throughout most of the show. My cheeks hurt terribly after the show. I hope this show is no different.

Anyone remember?

Well, the days of twirling ribbon on a stick, plastic weights, and rocking out to my cassette tape are gone for this girl. It didn’t get me into shape then, and it sure wouldn’t now. Last year, I started really exercising regularly on an elliptical and treadmill at work. Rather than internet surfing on my lunch break, I made good use of that time by working out. I dropped all the weight I put on from injuries and illness, a little more than 30 lbs, said and done. I kept all the weight off until a few months ago. See, the second floor of our office (where the equipment is located) was left unfinished when we had it built a couple years back. This summer they’ve decided to finish it. Even as a contractor, it takes quite some time to get permits and subs in order. The work still isn’t complete. I haven’t exercised since early June, but I’ve indulged in all kinds of goodies. Restaurant week really did a number on me. Currently, I have 10 newly acquired pounds I need to rid myself of. I know exercise will do the trick. Fortunately, Sears ran another financing promotion this week, we bought an elliptical and recumbent bike. I’m in the process of putting the elliptical together. I can’t wait for it to be complete. I've found I actually enjoy dedicated exercise, it clears my head and reduces stress. Side effects are muscle tone and weightloss. What's not to like? Plus, it’s one thing I do solely for me.