So I'm back from Boston after 10 days. It was an alright visit. I spent time with friends and family, although sometimes too much with family and not enough with friends. But it's all good. Gifts were given and received, and overall a good time was had, with good food to boot.
The diet was definitely off for the visit. I had lots of cake and pie and chocolate and stuffed myself silly. I did some shopping for presents, but got myself some too since there's no tax on clothes in Mass. I also continued my knitting lesson from last year, and hope to actually keep it up this year.
The trip home was the biggest adventure! I arrived late because waking at 4 was not quite early enough, and even though I had checked in online, I couldn't get to a machine in time. Some lady who didn't know what to do was just standing in front of a machine like a dope and held several of us up until we weren't allowed to check in on the machines anymore. Then I had to go over to special services where there was also a line, which was moving incredibly slowly. Fifteen minutes before my flight was to take off I finally got my bag checked. I ran to security, pulling off my coat and boots, seriously breaking a nail way under the nail line while pulling my laptop out of my bag. Bleeding, I had to then take off my belt before going through. Then my purse had to be put through again. Sigh. Finally, carrying my clothes and my belt and all my stuff I ran to the gate and just barely made it on plane. And thankfully my bag actually made it on the plane too. the travel fairies were watching over me it seems.
So I'm back home. I did have some ants find some chocolate, so I've been busy killing them and gaining back the sleep I lost by waking at 4. Now I have to start straightening out my apartment so that it doesn't look like I just moved in. But I'm glad to be back, and enjoying the L&O:CSI marathon on TV.
Summarizing my year in 24 words: http://meish.org/projects/mayfly/
Moved into new apartment. Bought new laptop. Pierced eyebrow which was later lost. Played with puppy Emma. Raised charity money. Finished MLIS. Still single.
So last night I got my baking done. Chocolate mint sticks were made. And while it didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped, it was still alright. The baking part was fine. Just standard brownies actually. What makes the item special comes after the baking part is done. But I had to use just egg whites for the brownies instead of eggs because that's all I had, and I had no idea how that effects brownies. I just compensated by using more so they'd be moist.
Continuing on the "that's all I had" note, the toppings for these brownies required margarine and butter, but all I had was Smart Balance. "That should be fine!" I said to myself. But no, not really. Granted it tastes just fine, and my coworkers feel like they can have more because it's made with egg whites and Smart Balance (it's practically health food, right!?), but the mint layer was thin when it should have been thick and the chocolate layer was thick when it should have been thin. And the mint layer just wouldn't firm up like it's supposed to. So it's messy. Much messier than usual. But my coworkers don't seem to mind at all.
Chocolatey-minty goodness triumphs in the end. Yay!
but I think it will have to wait until tomorrow night. This weekend was busy, but fun, and now I'm enjoying just hanging out. I got to spend it doing lots of dancing and spending time with family and friends. Good stuff. And I meant to bake for a coworkers birthday, but I just don't have it in me. I think she'll understand.
Sometimes I feel like a crabby old lady. I don't know if my reasons for feeling crabby and irritated are legitimate or if I'm being too sensitive, or if I'm just being crabby. I like to think of myself as pretty open, in terms of tolerance and accepting constructive criticism (I was an art major after all, which entails constant critiquing that is both tough and helpful, but always true), but lately I'm not sure. Maybe I'm not sure that the criticism I'm now feeling is helpful or true. But whether it's me or not, I'm just not enjoying certain things as much as I used to. Could be that I'm just feeling crabby.
Well, I went to see someone about my piercing today. I got it in May and it's never completely healed, which is just not right. I was actually hoping to put a placeholder in so I could do Dickens Fair, but you cant do that until it's all healed. So this very nice woman named Lysa at Industrial Tattoo and Piercing told me that the reason it hasn't been healing is because it's been migrating. Everytime it got 'infected' again, it was really moving and healing and moving and healing. She was pretty sure that it would eventually just come out. So instead I decided to take it out and try again in another month. I'm very sad about this, as it may be more difficult with the scar tissue and/or it may just migrate out again. But I'll go see Lysa after the holidays and see if we can make it work.
So I am still on my diet and extended phase one an additional week due to the Thanksgiving holiday (and also because I just haven't prepared for phase two yet). All is very well! I've lost weight, I feel some of the t-shirts and jeans that were not fitting quite so well are looking a lot better, and on T-day I didn't overindulge, although I still had all the good things I wanted.
I decided long ago that there would be no diet on Thanksgiving. That is just wrong. So I let myself have whatever I wanted, and thanks to my cousin's very healthy meal with lots of fresh vegetables I didn't even feel bad about anything I ate. While I did have stuffing and mashed potatoes, I also had broccoli, which normally I hate, but tasted OK to me (perhaps because I no longer have my sweet tooth?), a lovely salad of cashews and brussell sprouts (which I also normally hate), some cranberry sauce that was sweetened with agave instead of sugar, and asparagus. So it was a veggie-filled delicious meal. And of course there was turkey, but that's always been on the diet anyway. For desert I had a slice of apple pie ala mode. And, I have to admit, the had some nuts covered in white chocolate from Sees which I had to try (twice). But I still felt pretty good. I didn't even go back for seconds on anything (except a tiny bit of stuffing. I love stuffing).
And I think most importantly I resisted the urge to take home leftovers. A container of mashed potatoes was offered, and I briefly was like "oh yes!", but I quickly changed my mind. So I didn't bring home ice cream or pie or anything to tempt me. And this morning I'm only a half a pound heavier than yesterday. I feel ok with that.
So I've been on the South Beach Diet since last Monday. I haven't had bread, sugar, fruit or alcohol in six whole days! Amazing! I never thought I'd be able to do it. But it's not that bad and after I discovered sugar-free Fudgesicles, it got much better. The only thing is that I do feel I little less energetic. But I have already lost several pounds! And I probably would've lost more if I had been doing more exercise. But like I said, a little tired.
So I've finished my first day of the South Beach Diet. It started off fine. I felt energized - woke up early, ate breakfast, walked to the BART station to catch the shuttle to work, and got there not too late.
I had a snack of cashews at 10:30 and lunch at noon. Then the afternoon came and that's when I started to feel hungry. So I had my afternoon snack. And then I was hungry again, and had another snack. Dinner of chicken and roasted vegetables was fine, but I got kind of sick of it after a while. Finally, I just had a sugar-free popsicle, and a popsicle has never tasted so good! I was totally craving sugar - or sugar-like substance.
So that is the tough part for me anyway - cutting all the sugar. I have a huge sweet tooth. Sometimes they're even all I can stomach. But not for the next two weeks. And what's also hard for me is the portions. I don't really find that they satisfy my hunger. But maybe I can get used to that too. Let's hope. Oh, yeah, and I might have one more little snack. :D
So, the biggest news for me is that....I finished my graduate program! The evil e-portfolio is all done and approved and now I just have to sit back and await the official paperwork that says I'm done. Phew!
So I allowed myself almost a week in which I could drink beer and eat bad food, and now I'm about to embarck on the South Beach Diet. It's scary, as I don't like eggs (big part of diet), I love sweets and beer (I have had cookies for dinner before), and I'm not used to restricting my diet at all, but I think I can do it. I'll keep y'all posted on my progress.
