Back to Real Life

I was pretty relaxed on the No Fun Food Life for the 2nd week of my vacation, but I managed to get in a few mindful meals. I won't bore everyone with the details - mostly because I don't remember. LOL

I did manage to settle back into the real life with a bang! I completed the Zappos Community & Downtown 5K with a few of my friends! It was overall a positive experience, even though I complained towards the middle. There's a part where you turn around and basically complete the entire thing backwards to complete the 5K, and we kept turning and twisting and the turnaround spot was nowhere in sight! But we finally reached the midway turnaround point, I reached the end, and I even managed to pick up the pace to a light trot and put on a million dollar smile for the camera!! LOL

I look forward to the next one tomorrow!! WOOHOO!

SoCal Vacation _ Part Two

I ate the delicious Ham & Cheese bun for breakfast, yum! Then, my cousin and I headed out to LAX to pick up a friend from the airport and ate delicious Korean dumplings and I had a really amazing Royal Milk Tea afterwards. No regrets! Especially since we walked The Strand from Venice Beach to Santa Monica... I don't know the actual distance we walked, but we were there for almost 2 hours. My Fitbit hit 10,000 steps before we reached the end of the trek, but when I went to sync it with my app, it only tracked like 164 steps... Arg!

After our epic walk, we went to Tender Greens in Marina Del Rey to enjoy a light and healthy dinner. I ordered the Chicken Cobb Salad and she had the Tuna Nicoise... let me tell you... if you've never eaten at a Tender Greens before, you need to make your way over to one. Pronto! Hands down, the best salad I may have ever eaten in my entire life. We went back to her place and had a nice relaxing evening. I started watching a series called Resurrection on Hulu, and now I'm completely hooked. I spent the night watching this riveting show, drank hot Raspberry Leaf Tea, and munched on a banana & train mix.

Thursday

I awoke and ate that Milk Pudding bun... then I ate a piece of my cousin's Red Bean & Mochi bun... and at that time I felt a little unsettled. I think the sugar & carbs hit me a little too fast first thing in the morning. I take my Metformin after breakfast, so maybe that contributed a bit. We met my parents for lunch... I didn't keep track of what I ate, but there were definitely rice cakes, steamed pork buns, and Shanghai noodles involved. I didn't feel too bad about it - it was a great meal with my family. Afterwards, I had a Chai Tea Latte while chatting with my cousin. It was way sweeter than I anticipated... and it did make me feel a bit guilty. First tally of vacation woe - meh.

I left to meet up with a friend from my hometown for a long stroll around a park that she regularly runs at. We did some of the course exercises that are displayed on the signs around the track for a warm up, and then walked and talked for 3 laps. I'm not sure how far we walked, but the sun had set by that time and we headed to dinner. Second tally of vacation woe - we ate pho (Vietnamese noodles)... they're rice noodles and I'm sure SUPER high in carbs. Funny enough, I feel nothing about the egg rolls... lol. And then, I had a Jasmine Milk Tea with half sugar/half boba for dessert as we chatted into the evening.

Friday

I slept in this morning, and raided my parents' fridge for breakfast. I did well and just ate leftover veggies with a bowl of my mom's homemade papaya soup. Soooooo good! I just relaxed, watched TV, talked to my best friend on the phone for almost 2 hours. It was such a peaceful and relaxing day. I hung out with my parents when they came home and we had dinner together. Another great home-cooked meal that totally fit into The No Fun Food Life. Yay!

And now... I'm watching Resurrection, haha.... and about to head to bed so I can get up early to go visit my friend in San Diego tomorrow morning!!! So awesome! :)

SoCal Vacation - Part One

Very first stop after a 4 hour drive... my parents' house! My mom made me a homemade feast for lunch and it was so good! She went through the trouble of steaming extra fluffy brown rice w the little husks still intact... there's a special name for it, but I forgot. So I had about 3/4 cup of that with all the other veggie goodies. My parents are mo stay vegetarian. And, of course, slow boiled soup... the broth was soooo good.

After sitting and chatting a bit, I drove on! Went to LA to visit my cousin... and we headed over to Cerritos. We went to 86 Degrees, a super amazing Asian bakery. I bought an Egg Tart, Milk Pudding bun, and a Ham & Cheese bun. I ate the Egg Tart after enjoying Korean BBQ in the additional company of my best friend & her hubby. I also ate some mac salad at dinner and lots of 'rice paper'... which is like big flat noodles, and drank a couple glasses of Hite beer, I'm on vacation! LOL

I ate the Ham & Cheese bun this morning, and now I'm headed off for another funfilled day of adventure!!! :)

Travel Snacks

Today is the beginning of the two week vacation! Two whole weeks!!!

Tomorrow, I will be driving down to LA to visit my cousin and we'll be eating dinner with my best friend... and that's just the beginning! It's so exciting to know I'll be spending so much time seeing my fave people, visiting my fave places, and eating my fave foods... and it all starts when I wake up tomorrow! Woohoo!!

I feel like I'm heading into this vacation with a head start on health. I got on the scale for the first time since Thanksgiving... ready to face the brutal truth and expecting the worst... and I didn't gain any Holiday pounds! Omg, that never happens - it's unbelievable! LOL

So, I've made myself a little No Fun Food Life friendly travel pack... Pistachio nuts, trail mix w. peanuts/almonds/cashews/cranberries, and a couple of Nature Valley crunch bars. The gluten-free Nature Valley Peanut Crunch bars have the lowest carbs & sugar content out of all the boxes I looked at in the grocery store... I seriously spent about 15 minutes in that aisle. There are 13g Total Carbs and 6g Sugar in each bar... I normally wouldn't eat these, but no harm in packing them in case I get a little tired driving or just need the extra boost in blood sugar.

I already know I'm stopping by Whole Foods to get my mom this hand cream she likes and I'll grab a bottle of Kevita/Kombucha for the first leg of the drive. Then, I usually stop by the Starbucks in Bakersfield to get a Venti Iced Green Tea. Yup... everything's planned.

I'm going to try and be as good as I can this vacation, but I already know I'm going to eat some delicious Korean barbeque, dumplings, pho, my mom's home cooking, and then one solid week of my mother-in-law's home cooking.

Don't worry though, I've already planned 2 hikes and will wear my Fitbit to make sure my exertion level can keep up with my consumption level... hehe. ;P

Fixated and Irate

My ob/gyn prescribed Clomid for me based on the data that I've been dutifully tracking, another round of blood tests, and my long history (6 years) of PCOS. She has significant reservations that I am dropping any quality little eggs at all. :( The Clomid will block estrogen receptors in the brain so the body secretes more of it and other hormones essential to a healthy menstrual cycle. I started it in December and there was a drastic improvement in a few things. For instance, I stopped having epic 2-3 weeks of insaaaaaane PMS symptoms. I had like 2 days of symptoms and they were barely anything! Yay!

The down side? I take the pills from cycle days 3-7... which is during my period... and it shortens my already short fuse to non-existent status and raises my fiery temper to volcanic new heights. I think next month I may do everyone, and my career longevity, a favor and lock myself inside my home on the worse days... Sorry, Will.

I totally snapped at a friend at work... and even though she said it wasn't that bad... I KNOW it was bad because of the way I felt during and after the episode. My heart was beating fast, breathing went short and shallow, and I got fixated and irate. ... and afterwards I felt so guilty. Another friend at work likes to get me worked up for amusement. I usually handle it better, but I almost lost it today. I am on a precipice and I have to tread carefully.

I struggled with intense depression, anxiety, and PTSD through my teens & twenties, and this medication seems to be putting me into a bad emotional state for 5 days out of the month. It's hard for me to see my way out of it, even if it's only momentary.

I talked to my desk neighbor at work today about some of my feelings and issues, and he asked me if I would go see a counselor again. And I responded that... at some point, I've talked to everyone about everything and heard all the tips, tricks, and techniques. I just need to walk the walk.

So... I've dug up my Checklist of Cognitive Distortions that I worked on with my last therapist. I use to possess 7 out of 10 on the list... I'll let you postulate which ones.

1) All-Or-Nothing Thinking
2) Over Generalization
3) Mental Filter
4) Discounting The Positives
5) Jumping to Conclusions
6) Magnification or Minimization
7) Emotional Reasoning
8) SHOULD Statements
9) Labeling
10) Personalization and Blame

Now that I've written them here, I can always pull up this post at work to check myself and make sure I haven't fallen back into bad habits.

So, my mission is to make sure I focus on the mental/emotional aspect of my health during those 5 days. In the equation of "eating, moving, and relaxing my way to good health," I can't ignore one leg of the tripod. Lucky for me, today is Day 5, so I will most likely feel like a million bucks when I wake up tomorrow morning. Good night.

Sweet Potato Sausage Soup

Sweet Potato Sausage Soup
In a large pot, heat 1 tbsp olive oil w. medium-high heat. Cook 1 yellow onion (diced) and 4 cloves garlic (minced), until translucent. Season w. salt & pepper. Remove 3 Italian sausages from their casings. Add sausage to the pot with onions & garlic... break up meat with a wooden spoon and brown meat.

Add 4 cups chicken broth, 2 cups water, and 2 sweet potatoes (peeled & diced) to the pot. Bring to a boil. Add 3/4 cup small pasta shells and cook until al dente. OR skip the pasta and boil for about 7-8 minutes until sweet potato is soft.

Reduce to a simmer. Add 1 bunch of kale (rip leaves into edible size pieces, leave out the hard parts). Leave heat on for about 4 minutes until leaves wilt.

It's yummy... hits the spot on a cold afternoon! It fed me for quite a few meals this week. And Italian sausage usually comes in packs of 4, so you can have a lovely breakfast the next morning. Perfect!

EXERCISE UPDATE
So, I accompanied my friend to another on-site wellness class today. It was at the end of my work day, and I didn't want to go... just lacked motivation. I also had a weird, bad-ish day and didn't feel happy. One of my teammates was also affected by the events of the day and in a bad mood for a spell. I noticed the two of us were sitting there hunched over our keyboards and feeding off each other's negative energy. I was like: Omg! I'm going to just keep feeling crappy and bring it home with me... go work out!!

So, I went to Bootylates by Nina Waldman... the fancy lady on the right. This class was definitely at a much more manageable intensity level. The class started late due to technical difficulties, and I had to leave early... so I only probably worked out for about 30 minutes, but she made that short time count! My booty is sore! haha