The Olympics Sucked Me In

7 Feb

I never used to be all that interested in the Olympics. I’d get cranky because my regular scheduled programming would get all messed up, it was a bunch of sports and I don’t do that whole watching-sports-thing, and well, I just didn’t get the appeal.

That changed in 2010, since the Winter Olympics in Vancouver I have been hooked. Hooked! I definitely prefer the winter Olympics over the summer Olympics…for the most part, not gonna lie gymnastics in the summer Olympics is something I try very hard to watch. But yeah, winter Olympics? Sooooo many things I want to watch! It really sucks there is such an extreme time difference but oh well, that’s what recaps are for. Not as exciting as watching when it happens but the games can’t be in my time zone every time lol πŸ˜›

When I got home from work today I had intended to work out (using a workout dvd since my gym was already closed) but when I turned on the tv it was by fluke on a channel showing the men’s semi-final snowboarding freestyle and bam! Sucked in! Did I exercise? Hellz no! That would have meant turning off the Olympics so I could what? Do a dvd workout? Screw that, I wanted to see if a Canadian qualified for the finals, for a chance to win a medal, and oh yeah he did! Mark McMorris from Regina is making Canada proud!

Mark McMorris

Mark McMorris

Turns out I missed the figure skating, sadness, since that is also one of the events I really look forward to but whatcha gonna do? Time zones. shrug.

There is a really great app called Sochi 2014 that is awesome! It’s by CBC and you can watch a lot of video recaps, see a listing of results, all kinds of stuff on it. I used it to watch sections of the opening ceremonies cuz um, I sorta slept through those. Come on people! 8am?! That’s ridiculous! *rolls eyes*

Did anybody see those, the opening ceremonies? The fifth snowflake not turning in to the fifth ring, oh dear. lol. Some poor Russian is in maaaaajor trouble!

oops!

oops!

But hey, no biggie in the grand scheme of things right? I mean, that pole thingy didn’t extend properly in the opening ceremony for the Vancouver Olympics, it was embarrassing but there are worse things that can happen *cough*killingstraydogs*cough*

I have a feeling Olympic watching will be impeding a lot of things in the coming weeks, not just working out. Part of me thinks it is dumb, altering what I will be doing so I can be home watching the games buuuuut at the same time these aren’t an everyday thing and I want to see what happens, ok fine, if I am being honest I want to see who wins! lol

 

A Lovely Mountain Day

6 Feb

I spent a chunk of my afternoon up on a mountain today and thoroughly enjoyed myself. πŸ™‚ This may not seem odd but anyone who knows me knows I don’t like being outside during the winter, it’s cold, and there is snow and ice, and it’s cold! Yes, I know, I am a failureΒ as a Canadian *rolls eyes* πŸ˜›

I decided to go snowshoeing today, yay! It was zero degrees Celsius, which is, um…gimme a sec, I gotta google…it’s 32F…so nice n warm and perfect for spending outside. πŸ˜€

We haven’t had a lot of snow this winter (yes, I’m in that part of Canada lol) so I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for the trails to get snowy enough to make it worth my while and decided today was a good day to try em out.

There was snow, and a decent amount of it, but none of it fresh and none of it even remotely powdery, which, if you snowshoe you know is the most fun type of snow to trek through. Todays snow was all packed down, partially icy because the snow keeps melting during the day then freezing overnight – vicious loop that.

For part of the trail my snowshoes looked liked this…

2014-02-06 14.59.31yup, that’s right, they were being carried not worn cause the snow was just that packed down that there was no point putting them on my feet, sigh. I felt like an idiot carrying them and was really wishing I’d left them in my suv but obviously I wasn’t going to go all the way back to my suv to put them in the trunk so in my hands they stayed.

Until…

2014-02-06 15.23.23

 

I finally got to put them on! Yay! πŸ˜€

And hey, don’t judge the pants! They are super warm, fit well and my friend sold them to me for a measly $60, I heart those pants!…even if in this pic they do make my legs look huuuuuge lol

snow...

snow…

Me...

Me…the most unattractive cold person ever, sigh.

more snow...

more snow…

omg, me without makeup, on the internet, ack!

omg, me without makeup, on the internet, ack!

Do you see the damage to my toque? The loose threads that make it look old and worn? Well, lemme tell ya the story of that damage. This toque is brand new, this is only the third time I have gotten to wear it and I take good care of my stuff. So how did it get to look like this? The cat. *glares at the fur ball* I came home from work and discovered my toque at the base of his scratching post, it normally hangs on a hook on the wall by my front door. So he got it off the hook, brought it through the kitchen, in to the living room, killed it, then dumped the carcass somewhere I was sure to find it. The sadist. I’m trying to figure out how to fix or hide the damage but don’t know how…so right now, if you are keeping score, it is Cat-1, Human-0.

I didn’t get to go all the way to the top of the mountain due to timing issues. I got up there a bit later then planned which would’ve been alright except I was going on a trail I haven’t gone on before and accidentally went on the wrong trail to start with, oops! In my defence, there are two trail entrances, fairly close to each other, the first trail entrance turned out to be the wrong trail but the other trail entrance is hidden from site when at the first trail entrance so I thought there was only one trail…does that make sense? lol

Anyways! I went on the first, incorrect trail, and fairly quickly thought I was gonna die. It was super icy, lots of rocks, not a lot of snow, steep decline the entire way and of course the rocks were covered in ice so every part that had some serious decline trekking to do left me feeling I was facing certain doom. I don’t do awesome on ice, thanks to my stupid knee, and I didn’t even have my hands free thanks to having to carry my snowshoes. The trail was seeming like one super bad idea. I didn’t get all that far in to it when I decided screw it and I turned back. I felt like a bit of a failure but figured better safe than sorry. Since I thought that was the path I was supposed to be using I was deciding how I was going to get my exercise for the day since snowshoeing obviously wasn’t going to work out but when I got back to the start of the trail I noticed some people seemingly pop out of nowhere on my left side who had snowshoes. Being the nosy person I am I went to investigate and found the real trail, yay! and phew! lol

The second, and correct trail was way better because (1) it had snow (2) it was meant for snowshoeing (3) it was uphill and (4) way less icy patches.

Oh, and can I say people who take part in outdoor winter sports, super friendly! Every person I passed on the trail (by passed I mean they were going the opposite direction as I not I was faster than them and scooting around them) said hi, or asked how I was doing, a couple people stopped and we chatted a bit. Messed up my timing (I was tracking my distance and speed) and also shortened the length of time I was active but I don’t mind. People look out for each other, and that’s nice. This one lady checked to see if I was going up the mountain alone, I said yes so she gave me a recap of what I was in for (she was on her way down), reassured me about how many other people she had seen, where there were some rough patches, stuff like that. Nice lady. πŸ™‚ I notice the same thing when I am hiking in the summer, people say hi as you pass on the trail, sometimes stop and chat, things like that. Maybe it’s all that sunshine people are getting, makes them friendlier lol

 

Words I Don’t Like

4 Feb

Sepsis.

Blood work.

Urine testing.

X-ray.

Fluid in the joint.

Specialist.

Urgent.

Inflammation.

Fever.

ER.

.

.

.

There are a lot more words I don’t like but those ones in particular, being used in a convo with me, in regards to my hip, well lets just say those words are my current most hated words.

I had my doc appointment today to learn the results of my CT scan, the results aren’t exactly awesome. I’m not dying, so that’s good but I have to go for more blood work, rushed blood work, and I have a rushed referral to a specialist whose title I can’t recall right now and if my hip gets red, warm to the touch, more painful (or a bunch of other things) I am to immediately go to the ER and tell them I have fluid in my hip and two calcifications or bone chips (or something that reads like those) in the joint and well, presumably they will know what to do. Eesh. This is all becoming a tad overwhelming.

I appear to be a bit of an anomaly, apparently the fluid in my hip usually indicates an infection but I don’t have a fever nor have I had a fever recently so it seems unlikely I have an infection…I’m confusing the doc lol

It was explained to me that I have two, let’s call them calcifications, in my hip joint, they aren’t sure if I was born with them or if my hip underwent a trauma that caused them, but either way, I have them and they are causing the pain and that is causing the fluid in the joint and the infection that isn’t an infection. Oh, and I have a cyst but that appears to be unrelated, it just happened to show up on the CT scan. Lovely.

I’m wondering if I forgot anything but I don’t think I did…as if all that isn’t enough? *rolls eyes*

I’ve calmed down since I’ve been home, I’m not freaking out nearly as much as I was before. I’m in a tests-are-being-done, specialists-are-being-called, steps-are-being-taken so why worry frame of mind. It’ll get sorted and no point in freaking out about it. Right? Right!

So after the appointment I went grocery shopping, dropped a tonne of money (ugh, poor bank balance) but I stocked up on frozen foods that were on sale aaaaaaand I bought the ingredients for the Weight Watcher’s veggie soup (the recipe is above under the Recipes Page) and that is what I did when I got home. I made a huuuuge batch of veggie soup, most of which I will freeze in individually portioned out sizes but some I will keep in the fridge to eat this week. Not to be tooting my own horn but I make a pretty good veggie soup so I’m looking forward to eating it. πŸ™‚ πŸ˜›

how veggies become soup!

how veggies become soup!

The finished product - veggie soup!

The finished product – veggie soup!

 

Tonight however I googled how to bake a potato in the oven (turns out it is really easy but takes a while), when it was cooked I split it open, put some marble cheese on it, waited for it to melt then topped the whole thing with maple flavoured baked beans, Mmm! It’s a comfort food dish I don’t eat often but I guess I’m a bit more thrown by what the doc said then I want to fully acknowledge and I ended up with comfort food for dinner. *rolls eyes* Oh well, not like it’s gonna kill me! πŸ˜›

Freaking. Out.

4 Feb

I am freaking out about three different things right now, all completely different, all on different serious-ness levels, and all messing with me, arg!

The first is on a stupid level: I seem to be a bottomless pit today, constant hunger (except for one period of time earlier this evening that I will tell you about farther in to this post), I don’t want to be eating like a crazy person today, but it seems to be a choice between eat more than I think I should be eating or feel starved. Oh and I don’t mean a little nibble “starved” but as I type this my tummy is rumbling and I am at a level of hunger that is super uncomfortable. I am at this level of hunger even though I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner aaaaand a snack three hours or so after dinner. Maybe I should have eaten more protein today, that fills a person up longer, or…what? I don’t know…something…I feel I should have done something throughout the day to prevent this constant hunger buuuut there is only so much food I am willing to eat so I guess I just have to suck it up and deal with feeling hungry. sigh.

By Mr Crocker via Deviant Art

By Mr Crocker via deviantArt

The second things I’m freaking out about is on a fun level: I signed up for the BMO Run, the options were 8km, half marathon or full marathon…I chose the 8km which I know to most will seem like a ridiculously short distance and not even worthy of a person’s time but the most I’ve ever “run” was a 5km and I didn’t run the whole thing, both times I did the 5km I did it with a friend and each time we ended up walking a good chunk of it. I’m excited because I’ve been wanting to run some sort of marathon type thing for a while now but I know I wouldn’t be able to run a half marathon let alone a full marathon cause I am sooooo not a runner lol 8km seems perfect, long enough it will be something to work towards and require me to do some training so I don’t suck on the day but not so long it kills me or I feel like a failure or terrified about not being able to complete it. Despite picking the shortest distance I am still freaking out a bit because like I said, I am not a runner, I don’t know for sure that I can actually do this, what if I suck so badly I can’t finish? That would be mortifying! Plus, I signed up for it alone, which will suck cause I’ll have no one to share the fun of the day with but I really want to try my best for this and if I suck I don’t want to be able to say it was cause the person I was with wanted to walk (or some other type of excuse), how well I do will rest solely on my shoulders…but it won’t be as much fun without a friend to share it with.

8km run bmo

The third thing I am freaking out about is kinda serious but I’m hoping I’ve blown it out of proportion: The doctor’s office called about my x-ray and CT scan results. I forgot my phone at home today, (felt like I was missing a vital piece of my body all day! lol), when I got home I checked my messages and I had one from the doctor’s office saying the doc wanted me to come in today as soon as I could to discuss the CT scan, I was to call them and they would fit me in. Um, what? Don’t they only want you to go in when it is something bad?? So, freak out part one! I called, as soon as I said my name the receptionist knew why I was calling (I’m hoping they were having a quiet day, not that she knows something bad is up and it is so horrifying it burned my name in to her memory…), I told her I forgot my phone and didn’t get her message till then and sorry but there was no way I could get there before the office closed (it was 4:40pm and they close at 5pm). She put me on hold, comes back and says the doc can stay till 6pm if I can get in before then to which I responded I am in the middle of cooking a stir fry so can’t really leave it, could I please go tomorrow? Freak out part two! She’s willing to stay late to see me?? OMG! She puts me on hold again, then comes back and asks if I am feverish (what?? weird!), I said no, so she said ok then tomorrow would be fine. A tad random don’t ya think? So now I have an appointment tomorrow at 4…crap, at 4 something, I can’t believe I forgot the time of the appointment! I’ll have to call them tomorrow to confirm, only me! lol πŸ˜› Anyways! I now have an appointment with the doc tomorrow to talk about my hip and the results of the CT scan and I am freaking out because in my world you only have to go in to discuss test results when it is bad news. 😦 I don’t wanna go. *pout* If I ignore it won’t it go away? And before you say “no it won’t” I already know that cause I am the one sitting here with hip pain which I keep trying to ignore and it keeps not going away, stupid pain. Oh, and to make it worse, the pain is now in both hips not just the right hip, what the hell is going on in there? Stupid hips. sigh.

Stupid hip bones! Grr! by Elcadia on deviantArt

Stupid hip bones! Grr! by Elcadia on deviantArt

I don’t have any idea what might be wrong, which means my brain has been flying off in 20 different directions coming up with all kinds of ridiculous things it could be, none of them are positive of course lol I was so freaked out that after I got off the phone and finished cooking my dinner I stared at it for a while cause I wasn’t hungry, the news actually messed with my appetite, nothing messes with my appetite! Least not to suppress it so ya know I’m worried when I don’t want to eat…I eventually did eat but only because I didn’t want to waste the food, not out of hunger…which is ironic considering I’ve been a bottomless pit all day…

So there we have it, I am in full freaking out mode, mostly about the doctor visit and her level of insistence at seeing me as soon as can be arranged. I keep thinking it’ll end up being nothing serious and this freaking out will be for nothing and I’ll be pissed if I get a wrinkle or white hair from this but then a little part of my brain starts with the “what if it isn’t a little thing” and I’m right back to freaking out.

I think I’ll try to concentrate on the BMO Run, least that is a fun freak out topic…

Stir Fry Sunday: Turkey Bacon Makes Everything Better

3 Feb

Once again I didn’t make my Sunday stir fry on Sunday, but hey, I’m only one day late…again…oops! πŸ˜›

Sunday normally has me working the morning shift, 7am – 3pm but I swapped yesterday and worked 1pm – 9pm so that the girl who normally works the evening shift could be home in time for the superbowl. I prefer evenings so the swap worked well for me. πŸ™‚ I had vaguely intended to make the stir fry for lunch on Sunday, or at least make it then take it to work to have for dinner while on my shift but this is me and that didn’t happen – too much pre-planning! lol

So instead I made my weekly stir fry Monday after work. πŸ™‚

It is only week 3 and I was at a bit of a loss for what I wanted to put in it…a tad concerning since I am hoping to make a different stir fry every week but oh well, I’m sure I’ll keep managing to come up with variations for a little while longer *crosses fingers*

I opted for an all veg stir fry, protein schmotein right? πŸ˜‰ I had the veggies in the pan and the water coming to a boil for the vermicelli noodles when I had inspiration, turkey bacon! Yup that’s right, I cooked two slices of turkey bacon, then cut it in to bite sized pieces and put that on top of the stir fry once it was in the bowl and ya know what? It was really good!

Turkey Bacon and Veg stir fry on vermicelli noodles

Turkey Bacon and Veg stir fry on vermicelli noodles

The noodles turned out better this time, yay! I let them stay in the boiling water longer and that seemed to help. Also, when I added them to the pan I pushed all the veggies to the side and didn’t try to mix the two, seemed to work. I used the sweet and sour sauce again, it is one of my faves, also, I’m not going to buy a new sauce every week or I’ll end up with a fridge full of condiments which is kinda crazy…well, crazy if it is all the same type of condiment lol Β I tried not to use too much sauce and ended up not using enough, sigh. I put some in with the veggies when I was cooking them and then poured some on the noodles when I put them in the pan but I didn’t taste it all that much. I’ll have to use more next time…or use a protein that actually absorbs the sauce flavour *rolls eyes*

All in all I am happy with the results, it was a little plain tasting but that is easily fixable by using the right amount of sauce lol I was pleasantly surprised by how well the bacon topped the vegg and noodles, I guess that saying about bacon making everything better might be right, as long as it is turkey bacon! πŸ˜›

Jillian Michaels Ripped In 30

1 Feb

The other week I bought the Ripped In 30 exercise dvd by Jillian Michaels. Not gonna lie, I bought it not knowing if I would actually try it, stupid I know lol. *rolls eyes*

Jillian Michaels Ripped In 30

Jillian Michaels Ripped In 30

I’m torn on my feelings for Jillian Michaels lol She is one of those people that I, in equal parts, want to meet and fear to the point if I saw her on the street I might run away lol πŸ˜› When I watch her pushing someone on The Biggest Loser to the breaking point I always think (1) I have never had a workout that intense before and (2) I don’t think I’d survive a training session with her…I’m pretty sure I’d die…just sayin…

So this dvd, I know it is only a dvd but I thought, if it is anything like the Insanity workout dvds I won’t make it, just not gonna happen! My hope for this dvd was an intense workout that doesn’t have as much jumping as the Insanity workouts (so I could stop hitting the ceiling lol) and that pushed me but was also do-able.

The ’30’ in the title refers not just to the 30 day program but also to the length of time that is each workout, 30 minutes (or a bit less) for each workout and there are 4 different workouts so with each week your workout gets harder. Apparently with just 30 minutes a day 6 days a week I will get the body I want in 30 days…somehow I doubt this…cynical? Maybe. Realistic? I’d say so. πŸ˜‰

This evening when I got home from work I decided to try it, sheer food guilt led me to my decision to work out, I ate pasta for dinner then had two shortbread cookies, sigh, and I wonder why I am fat?? *rolls eyes*

I cleared floor space, put on my work out gear and prepared to be yelled at a lot and feel like I wouldn’t be able to make it. I also was looking forward to that feeling of satisfaction I get after I have completed a good solid workout.

Welllll, it’s not that the workout wasn’t good, it just…well, wasn’t great? It was better than doing nothing, and some of the moves were good, but I didn’t feel like I was doing any kind of intense workout, I didn’t feel pushed, I didn’t feel exhausted by the end…shouldn’t I be feeling those things?

Part of it was because I only have one set of dumbbells, ten pounders, which admittedly aren’t huge but for some of the moves I was supposed to have smaller weights, like three or five pounds. I made the executive decision to use no weights for some of the moves because my ten pounders were too heavy, makes me sound like a wimp huh? I swear I’m not!…well, not completely lol Next time I will have some canned soup or beans or something near by and use those in lieu of small weights, random I s’pose but it’s what I have lol

She has two women working out with her, one to show a modified simpler form for the moves and one to show a more bad-ass form. I tended to land somewhere between the two, never needing the super simple form but not always doing the bad-ass version either. I am a bit of a dummy and didn’t realize the workout was only 30 minutes (I thought the 30 referred only to the length of time the entire program takes, the 30 days) so I kept thinking “don’t do the bad-ass moves, save energy to get you through the entire workout”. I think next time I will do the bad-ass moves since the workouts are only 30 minutes lol.

The bonus to the workouts being so short is I should have an easy enough time fitting them in to my daily routine! πŸ™‚ I’m not anticipating getting ripped in 30 days, but a little slimmer wouldn’t hurt lol.

Her plan of attack is a good one, she goes in sets, 3 minutes of strength exercises, 2 minutes of cardio, 1 minute of abs. You do each set 2 times and then you never do those moves again during that particular workout. I like that she doesn’t have you doing the same things over and over and over cause that gets soooooo boring, especially if you use the dvd often – which I will be in this challenge!

There is also a meal plan that I can get online, I haven’t checked that out yet but will tomorrow. I’m not sure if I will follow it (since I haven’t read it yet) but knowing me I’ll take some of the recipes or meal ideas and ignore the rest lol. πŸ˜› I find meal plans that come with exercise dvds usually have a lot of foods in them I don’t generally buy and it is too costly to stock up on what they say I need. shrug. I want to get in better shape but I’m on a budget and I have to take that in to consideration when planning meals. πŸ˜›

So yeah, I don’t have a finalized review of the Ripped In 30 since this evening was my first workout with it but I’m going to try to do as she says (workout 6 days a week using her dvd, and each week advance to the next workout so it gets harder) and maybe by the end I’ll be more impressed then I am right now. We shall see!

Oh, fyi, if you are looking to buy it Wal-Mart was selling it (and other of her workout dvds for $10) πŸ™‚

Mish-Mash

30 Jan

I (quite unintentionally!) have not written in a couple days and it is driving me nuts! lol Not like some huge life altering thing happened in the last couple days just that I feel weird for having not written…go fig! πŸ˜›

So here’s a random mish-mash of thoughts that went through my head lately…

My mail for the day, wtf??

My mail for the day, wtf??

The above shows everything I got in the mail on Monday. W.T.F?!?! All ads for fast food, two are for pizza places, one for Quizno’s (and before you try to say Quizno’s sells subs and is healthy go look at the nutritional information, you might as well be eating at McDonald’s!). Why-oh-why don’t I ever see flyers with coupons in my mailbox for places that sell legit healthy food? Hmm? The ad industry is obviously trying to keep us all fat, *rolls eyes* lol I would go out of my way to use a coupon at a Pita Pit but I’ve never seen a flyer/coupon for them ever...

Which leads me to…Why are all the drive-thru food places only places that sell bad-for-me-food? When I was having all that hip pain I ended up going through a fast food drive thru because I (1) had limited food at home, what I had required being able to stand long enough to prep and cook it and I couldn’t do that (2) had been in the hospital for over five plus hours, was on my home and was really hungry and (3) wasn’t able to bare the pain of getting out of my suv, hobbling around a grocery store and then maneuvering back in to my suv to drive home. The only option for food that I had was various fast food joints that had drive-thru. Subway drive-thru? Nope. (and yes I know they count as fast food but at least you have healthy options there) Pita Pit drive-thru? Nope. Hell, a Booster Juice drive-thru? Definitely nope. Is it because if you are eating somewhere healthy you are supposed to be energetic enough to get out of your car to get your food? That seems discriminatory against people with mobility issues…just sayin…:P

Early Valentine's Day Gift

Early Valentine’s Day Gift

A friend of mine gave me the above slow cooker as an early Valentine’s gift and I am super stoked to use it! I got it Sunday and have yet to take it out of the box cause well, to be honest I haven’t been cooking much on these days off and it seems slow cookers take a bit of fore-thought. Not like pulling out a frying pan, tossing some stuff in it and boom! food! Nooooo, the slow cooker needs me to know in advance what I want to put in it and then use it. I don’t know that I am capable of that! lol πŸ˜‰ I really wanted to use it before I go to work Friday afternoon cause I’ll be seeing the friend that gave it to me and I wanted a story of the epic meal I made in it but uh, I don’t think that’s really gonna happen…shoot…I should really go google slow cooker recipes, there might still be time?

My agent sent out some sides (that means copy of a script), I am to work on a couple scenes for a specific character, really nail it, then go film it at the office (he has studio space), it is to send to casting agents so they can see what I can do using a more recent script. I’m really psyched about it cause (1) it gives me something to work on not just that I came up with but that has a purpose and (2) shows my agent is planning/plotting/thinking which I loooooove!

My little sister and I met with the trainer again yesterday, makes for two Wednesdays in a row. πŸ™‚ We had physical assessment tests done, he is going to email us our results but I haven’t gotten an email yet. I don’t know that I want to know the results lol I mean, I know how many push-ups I was able to do, and how long I lasted in the cardio-endurance test, I know I scored perfect on balance (which if you know me is funny cause I am always off balance lol) and I know how I did on some of the other things but I don’t think I want to know my body fat %, or my weight, or just how low I scored on my core strength (suuuuper low I am sure!). I just want all that to stay unknown to me and then when I get retested in a couple months or so I want to be told I improved…but specific numbers? That knowledge will just be depressing I think…We had homework for the past week, the food journal, I handed it in but don’t know what he has made of it yet, eek! This week my homework is to keep track of what physical fitness stuff I do and tell him next Wednesday, I feel he’ll be disappointed if I say I did nothing so I’m gonna hafta make sure I get off my ass and do something…

Speaking of getting off ones ass, I had wanted to go running today and had the perfect route! I had to go to work this afternoon for a meeting and thought I’d park at a grocery store then run to work, attend the meeting, and run back to my suv, perfect right?! πŸ™‚ It would have been about 8km total (that’s 5 miles I believe) but it was crap ass weather, pouring rain, and while I was ok with attending the meeting being sweaty I wasn’t ok with attending it looking like a drowned rat. 😦 So that didn’t happen. I am just not a do-stuff-in-the-rain kind of person…unless it is dragon boating but hey, that’s a water sport, I’m gonna get wet anyways lol

I managed to steam a spaghetti squash tonight for the first time ever! Soooo happy it worked! I had to call my mom for some help and she very nicely ensured I didn’t screw it up lol I paired the squash with some feta cheese and a red pepper antipasto, it was ok. I also had a cheese and broccoli stuffed chicken breast which was super yum. πŸ™‚ I took a picture but it doesn’t look good at all so I’ll leave you to your imagination on this one lol. πŸ˜›

What I Don’t Like To Hear

27 Jan

Two posts in one day?! Say whaaaa? That’s crazeeee! lol πŸ˜›

I went to a new doctor today about my hip (catch upΒ here) and it appears I am going to be dragged in to the world of routine medical care whether I want to or not. *sits and throws tantrum* sigh.

It’s not that I don’t like doctors, although that is what I say cause it is easier than explaining why I avoid them, it is that, unless it’s an actual crisis/emergency/I’m-gonna-die situation I don’t see the point. It seems that so many people go to the doctor for the littlest thing, it’s a waste of the patient’s time, the doctor’s time, our healthcare system *rolls eyes* We have immune systems! We have bodies that most times can heal themselves if you take care of them properly! Stop with the excessive visits to doctors!

phew! Sorry about that little rant…

Anyways!

I had to to the ER the beginning of January because of my hip, because of my mentality towards medical care it is safe to say that if I actually go for help I really need it. The end results of my two ER visits were inconclusive and confusing. If my hip got better on its own I wasn’t to go back, if it stayed the same or got worse I was to go back, all while being on some pills. The pills had nasty side effects so I stopped taking them and over time the pain decreased so I could walk without crutches, then without a limp, then fairly normally. I still have pain but it is a manageable level and I can function daily, which in my world means I don’t need any more medical care.

Apparently I am the only one who thinks that…

A friend of mine kept bugging me to go to a doctor for follow up, when I told her I don’t have a doctor I just go to walk-in clinics when absolutely necessary she got mildly disgusted with me, said there was no reason to not have a family doctor, and gave me the name of her doctor. Then she badgered me daily for over a week to call and get an appointment! Badgered!

I caved, called the doctor and today was my appointment.

Turns out the doc is pretty nice, she sat and chatted with me for quite a while about my hip, about what could be wrong, she can’t diagnose until she sees the X-Ray and CT results from my hospital visits so we arranged for her to get those and she already has me getting another X-Ray next week so she can compare the first one to a more recent one. Ugh. She explained a lot of things in terms a non-doctor can understand and expressed mild disdain for the lack of results I got from the ER docs.

However, she said things I really didn’t want to hear, like:

– we’ll almost definitely be getting you in to see an orthopedic surgeon

– next week get another x-ray of the hip done

– did they take blood at the hospital? if not I’m going to get some blood work done

– they prescribed those meds to you?? that is a really strong dosage! no wonder you had side effects

– let’s go over your family history

– you have a lot of risk factors we’ll want to keep an eye on

– once we’ve dealt with your hip I want to get your cholesterol levels tested and arrange for other exams/tests

– one of the causes of your hip pain is a vein could have been cut off and a part of your hip could be “dying”

– I’ll see you again soon

The woman wants to get me jabbed with needles to test my freakin cholesterol, wtf! It’s fine! Just leave it alone! No need to go digging for problems! Besides that, if people were meant to give blood so often we’d have all be born with valves in our arms, eesh. *flares nose*

The mention of an orthopedic surgeon disturbs me also but I’m trying to ignore that one…

After the appointment was over I was walking back to my suv and passed by a coffee shop I never get to go to anymore cause I’m not in that area often, they have a really yummy tea so I went in to get one and came out with not only the tea but this…

Best cinnamon bun ever!

Best cinnamon bun ever!

They advertise it as “the best cinnamon bun ever” and I gotta say, they could be right. I was going to slack, eat it when I got home, then use it as an excuse to not cook dinner but as my previous post shows I didn’t do that, I made stir fry, so this became dessert. Thing was, after dinner I was so full that for hours I was convinced I wouldn’t be eating the cinnamon bun tonight cause the tummy was full but luckily my stomach’s dessert compartment opened up and that cinnamon bun fit right in lol πŸ™‚

Another thing I got was this…

pretty dreamcatcher

pretty dreamcatcher

I know I know! You aren’t supposed to buy a dreamcatcher for yourself, you are only supposed to get them as gifts or make them for yourself but I have been dreamcatcher-less for a while now and I really needed one. For those who don’t know a dreamcatcher is placed above your bed and during the night bad dreams get caught in the webbing, then when the sun comes up the sun destroys them, thereby ensuring the sleeping person only gets happy dreams. The dreamcatcher I had for years and years (seriously, it was a gift in high school from a friend) became so ragged the leather was breaking and the feathers were coming off so it had to be replaced. Someone I knew bought me a new one and it was lovely but we no longer speak and I wasn’t comfortable having something from them guarding my sleep so I took it down hmm, over a year ago. So all this time I have had nothing guarding my dreams, sadness. I saw this in a window of a shop I passed and I dunno, it felt right, like I was meant to have it, I wasn’t even actively looking for one so it was odd I felt so connected to it. Great, now I sound like a hippie lol I went in and it wasn’t expensive so it became mine and is now hanging over my bed. πŸ™‚ I feel better having it there, especially with words like “orthopedic surgeon” running through my head lol

Stir Fry Sunday: A Day Late

27 Jan

Alrighty, so it’s not that I didn’t want to make a stir fry last night for dinner, I like the idea of Stir Fry Sunday buuuuuut after work I had a long phone convo, when that was over I wasn’t hungry so thought I’d wait twenty minutes or so before making dinner and I uh, hmm, kinda…well…I fell asleep…oops? πŸ˜› By the time I woke up from my unplanned nap I was in no mood to cook, or eat. I eventually had toast and some warm almond milk with nutmeg and even that seemed like a lot!

Soooooo, I made stir fry tonight, yay! A delayed-by-one-day Stir Fry Sunday! πŸ™‚

This weeks stir fry had the same frozen stir fry veggies as last week (why wouldn’t they? the package is already open and I gotta use em up lol), extra water chestnuts cause I have a weakness for them, mushrooms, fresh red and yellow peppers thinly sliced, beefless tips, shrimp, peanuts and a sweet and sour sauce. This was all served on top of vermicelli noodles. Mmm! Well, I think it was Mmm! lol You may not, shrug, but that’s cool, we all have different tastes after all.

I was a little let down by the vermicelli noodles, the package said put in boiling water for a couple minutes then add to the stir fy pan so that is what I did. The noodles tasted good but were so entangled with each other when I put them in the pan they didn’t really mix well with the rest of the ingredients, nor did they move around the pan easily. I’ll keep using them, mostly because I love that particular type of noodle, but next time I might not put them in the pan after boiling them, I might put them directly on the plate then top them with the vegg mix. I’ll keep trying new things till I figure it out. πŸ™‚

I was happy with the veggies, how could I not be? lol There was a nice combo and I love veggies so it was a win-win.

I am oh-so proud of the shrimp! As in ridiculously proud! I was back to worrying I’d screw it up, give myself food poisoning or maybe over cooking them to the point of them not being edible buuuuut I did neither! How awesome is that?? I put the amount I wanted in to a ziploc bag and had them sit under running cold water for 7 minutes (as the package instructed), then tossed them in to the pan when the veggies were at an almost done stage and go fig, it worked…weird…but sweeeeeet!

The beefless tips, you’re probably thinking that is a typo lol but nope, it is not! They are made by a company called Gardein (www.gardein.com). The product looks like cubes of beef that you sautee, they have a texture of tender beef and almost taste like beef, kinda…I tried them on a whim years ago (I wanted beef but was scared to cook it and poison myself lol) so I tried these, figured I couldn’t mess up a fake meat product and so far I haven’t. Each time I cook them they turn out perfect even though each time I cook them for a different amount of time and have cooked them in varying ways. Versatile, I like that in a fake meat lol. I randomly tossed some in to the pan (as a back up in case I messed up the shrimp) but ended up with the bonus of having two protein sources in my stir fry cause both the shrimp and fake beef were great.

Stir Fry Numero 2

Stir Fry Numero 2

On a whim, and after I snapped the above pic, I decided to put half an avocado on top. Why did I do this? Cause I had half an avocado in my fridge and didn’t think it would last another day lol. I figured it’d either taste good or I wouldn’t like the combo of flavours so I’d eat the avocado pieces first and as alone as I could get them on the fork and it wouldn’t contaminate the rest of the stir fry. Turns out I liked the flavour combo, avocado makes everything better! πŸ™‚

I’d like to think that even with the one day delay my second Stir Fry Sunday was a success…it must be, I ate until I was stuffed lol πŸ˜›

Attempting A Healthy Work Lunch, Oh Dear…

25 Jan

I don’t cook. Β Well, that’s not entirely true since last Sunday I made a stir fry but in general cooking isn’t my thing. My idea of cooking meat is taking something frozen, putting it on a baking tray, throwing it in the oven, following the instructions on the package and being happy if it turns out edible. To me that is cooking.

None of this messing with raw meat stuff, nuh-uh!

Well, I had this oh-so-brilliant idea that I would change that so when I was grocery shopping the other day I bought two raw chicken breasts. I was inspired by the flyer showing there was a sale, I’m a sucker for a sale. Stupid sale! I also bought some Creole Dijon Sauce for the chicken, I’ve had it before and it is yummy…course I used it sparingly on cooked rice but let’s not get in to how I chose to use the sauce designed for chicken k? πŸ˜‰

creole dijon sauce

I know there is some sort of a timeline when it comes to how long raw chicken can sit in the fridge and I’m fairly certain that timeline is short which has had me paranoid since I bought it that before I could figure out how to cook it it’d go bad. To me this is a completely valid concern! πŸ˜›

The website for the marinade had some recipe ideas but didn’t explain how to marinate the chicken, it just said to do it, sigh. Do they not realize some people are reeeeeally dumb when it comes to cooking? Eesh! I wanted to call my mom when I got home from work this evening to ask her what to do but thanks to lame time zones I couldn’t. She’s an hour ahead of me and I hate calling her and my dad any later then 10pm their time because I worry I’ll wake them. So it was left to me and internet to figure it out!

I found conflicting information for how long the chicken has to stay in the sauce, anywhere from 20 minutes to overnight, wtf, pick a time people! With the help of google I learned once the chicken is soaking up that marinade it has to go back in the fridge, covered, while it becomes flavourful so that is what I did. I drowned the two pieces of chicken in sauce, using a shallow glass pan, covered with saran wrap and put it in the fridge. I gave it an hour then popped one piece of chicken in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. The second piece I am marinating overnight and will cook tomorrow, not like I really want two pieces of chicken with the same flavouring two days in a row but I don’t know if I can let it sit soaking up the yummy creole dijon any longer without risking death…ahhh lovely food poisoning, how you cast a shadow over everything I do in the kitchen! πŸ˜›

The oven is about to beep at me saying the chicken is done, let’s cross our fingers it really is done shall we?

Since we’re already crossing our fingers let’s keep them crossed that this works cause this piece of chicken is the main attraction of the lunch I am taking to work tomorrow and I have no more time tonight to cook anything else, it’s this or bust! No pressure or anything…