Easily

Went to lunch with the 'Fugee and Rosie and a couple of things caught my eye.

After lunch went to a naturalization ceremony. Kind of like the pomp and circumstance of this particular occasion and the judge was pretty funny. I could see him doing stand-up comedy -- easily -- but he was also serious and I liked what he said about freedom and how you cannot use your freedom to constrict other people's freedom...speech...movement etc.

My Selection

Fugee's Selection

Renounce and abjure absolutely...

It Still Had Calories

Met Chiquita to view the memorial DVD with pictures of my aunt plus family. Hadn't planned on it so I didn't have time to go home and eat lunch.

Kept thinking about what would be suitable to eat from the vending machine and decided to eat some expired (by five months) pear crisps which I almost threw away until my next door neighbor at work reminded me that, not only were they sealed, they were also freeze-dried and that's what I had for lunch and I didn't feel terribly hungry which makes me feel like I'm on automatic and overeating a lot.

The Expired Ones

On Sunday I made a stir-fry and used an Archer Farms' sauce which was too sweet. Otherwise, I haven't been cooking and stopped by Lulu's Local Eatery after work today and got a sweet potato black bean burger. Also got a peppermint mocha cupcake. It was vegan but, yeah, it still had calories.

It's kind of amazing that when I feel like I'm on my best behavior, nothing happens in the weight loss department but when I'm indulging...

Feeling a bit out of control but I guess this, too, shall pass. We'll see how my carpe diem attitude impacts the weight loss.

Don't Feel Bad or Month-End Review, November

"Open" on S. Grand Business District

Didn't mean to disappear... Went to my brother's for Thanksgiving along with four others and it was a comedy of errors as far as communication went.

Rode with my uncle and his woman friend. Less than a mile from my brother's, we got pulled over by a cop who was concerned that my uncle was driving slow in the left lane. The cop told my uncle, twice, that In Missouri, we don't drive slow in the left lane. Just ridiculous and unnecessary statements right now.

Rode Amtrak back and, about three hours into trip, Chiquita texted me to say that she was at hospital with aunt and somebody had just coded. As we rolled into downtown St. Louis and I spotted the Scottrade Center, I started to think Be it ever so humble,,, but couldn't finish the sentiment because it didn't really feel nice to be back in St. Louis...

Asked Alison if she was up for going to Rooster after yoga then checking out the artwork on the boarded up businesses. I have been eating out a lot but, ironically, I've lost 10 pounds (of the 20 that I gained back). However, I don't feel bad about eating at Rooster or Lulu's for that matter. Hard to feel guilty about Lulu's sweet potato black bean burger. Don't feel bad about the decadent foods I had for Thanksgiving either since I missed several meals while traveling...

Savory crepe: goat cheese, mushrooms, spinach, tomato jam @ Rooster

Missed a few days of exercise and didn't do nearly enough yoga but, for the most part, I managed to stay on track in November:

10 Minute Solution: Fitness Ball Workout
*Upper Body, 1 x

10 Minute Solution: Knockout Body Blast!
*Knockout Body Cardio, 2 x's

Climbing, 2 x's

Ellen Barrett Live: Super Fast Body Blast!*, 1 x

Dance Off The Inches: Dance It Off & firm up!*, 4 x's

Dance Off The Inches: hip hop jam*
*Cali Pop, 1 x

Just Walk: 5 Mega Miles
*Mile 5: Ab Walk

Just Walk: mix + match: walk blasters*

*Dance Walk, 1 x
*Light Walk, 1 x
*Walk & Kick, 1 x

Just Walk: Walk to the Hits: Party Songs
*Mile 1, 5 x's
*Mile 2, 5 x's
*Mile 3, 3 x's

Latin Cardio Party
*Samba!, 1 x

Personal Training with Jackie
*15-Minute Upper Body Circuit, 1 x

Swimming, 2 x's

Weight Watchers 15-Minute Boot Camp Series
*15-Minute Cardio

willPower & grace, 1 x

Yoga, 5 x's

Zumba, 6 x's

Zumba Fitness, 1 x


Money has been raised for the small businesses in the S. Grand district where so many windows were broken.

The Eye Guy -- Peat Wollager

*Disclosure: I received this video without charge.

Inspiration Comes In Different Packages

Got asked the dreaded question -- Do you want to go out to lunch with us? A former coworker is in town and wanted to meet up. Plus, it was another coworker's last day.

I studied the Lebanese restaurant's menu and decided that I would get tabouli or the hummus deluxe appetizer -- which comes with a small plate of hummus with either beef or chicken shawarma on top. Also thought about getting a smoothie with banana, dates, walnut and honey if the appetizer had been small.

The bread basket was put right next to me and I couldn't resist those golden orbs. The bread was amazing. Bonus points for me for not eating the entire basket.

We season everything with love says one of the posts on the restaurant's Facebook page. Love is a little salty when you get the chicken shawarma but, otherwise, I don't think that I did too much damage.

Oh yeah, I also tried a bite of a stuffed grape leaf but didn't really care for it.

So Delicious

You'll need the comfy window seating after all of the hummus.

Went to Zumba to try to dance off a few calories. Shawny asked the usual instructor questions: Is there anyone new to Zumba? Anyone new to my class?

Yes, I am a Zumba instructor she said. I try to stay chubby to inspire you all...

After the first beats of song one, there is no doubt that Shawny is a Zumba instructor.

Around song five, Alison said I can feel the pulse in my forehead.

Not Drinking the Kool-Aid and...More Gospel from Melinda Frances

I got an email alerting me that someone "said" my name on Twitter:

" How colleagues make you fat: on.wsj.com/ArFSGJ” I guess everyone can't have @andreamw as a coworker

— MF (@HottSouthernMss) March 15, 2012

I've pretty much put the kibosh on eating out when someone retires, resigns or gets laid off but, of course, I have felt guilty or felt that I was being too much of a stickler and/or a stick-in-the-mud. I do have restaurants that I will go to including Chipotle (burrito bowl minus the cheese and sour cream), Kaldi's (baked falafel), Local Harvest (veggie burger or egg sandwich with farm fresh eggs) or Sweet Art (Sweet -veggie- Burger or vegan chili).

I've also felt obnoxious when I've asked family and friends about ingredients in a meal when an invitation to dinner has been extended.

It's funny when people feel like they must feed you. My colleagues will bring me strawberries or grapes etc. when there's a function going on at work because, by now, they know that I won't eat the cake or drink the "Kool-Aid..." and, yet, I still get plenty of invitations to dine out. After reading The Wall Street Journal article, I felt like I could exhale...

Hott Southern Mess a.k.a. Melinda no longer works with me but I remembered that I still had more gospel fodder:

I'll see you in a tic toc.

OH EM GEE...

My love for candy is deep and it is real.

I need to get my nails done before I lose all of my friends.

Paris Hilton always says live every day like it's your birthday.

Me: Are you generous with yourself?


Melinda: I'm the most important person in my world. My cat and David are a close tie...

When I was little, I had a cat named Princess Kitten because I was imaginative like that...

BRB...

I'm so over being an adult.

We could be a Blondetourage.

Melinda about Taylor Swift, Paris Hilton and herself

Getting To Fine

I decided to go to my colleague's goodbye luncheon and since Chimichanga did not have an online menu, I stopped by the restaurant and got one. After skimming it, I settled on the grilled chicken salad.

I thought that I might have been overreacting to the whole eating out thing so I decided to actually research Mexican fare. Maybe I was giving chalupas a bad rap.

Refried Beans

Breakfast Burrito

Enchilada

Tamale

Chalupa

Chile Relleno

Arroz Con Pollo

So, yeah, I stuck with the grilled chicken salad. Huge, isn't it?


My boss sat next to me.

Me to the waiter: I'll have the grilled chicken salad with no cheese and the dressing on the side.

My boss: I'll have the same thing.

I thought that my boss might not have heard me say no cheese but she did. She also told me that she needed to lose weight. When our salads arrived, my boss said that if she had known how big it was going to be, we could have shared and I would have been completely willing to do that because I barely made a dent in my salad.


My boss and I also discussed how much meat was on the salad and agreed that it was about 12 ounces. Another colleague said that she could hardly see the lettuce underneath my dish because of all the meat.

There were about twenty people at the luncheon and you should have seen how much food was on the table -- probably enough to feed a small nation.

As I was putting the remainder of my food in the refrigerator at work, one of my colleagues asked me how was lunch and then we chit chatted about the food. She pooh-poohed my concern: You're fine right now. While I do feel a sense of accomplishment, I know that I have not reached my goal. In addition, when I do get to fine -- I want to stay that way...

Eating Out...Yadda, Yadda, Yadda, Yadda

First, there was this luncheon.

Then, a colleague moved on.

Now, another colleague is leaving and there is, of course, a goodbye luncheon.

I wrote said colleague an email letting her know that I would not be attending but it had nothing to do with her yadda yadda yadda yadda. I would like to go -- yadda yadda yadda yadda but my RSVP did not go over well.

We played email tennis for awhile. Her final email stating that, BTW, she would not be happy if I did not attend.

Later on, said colleague stopped by and said that the Mexican restaurant had boiled chicken and that I could also get vegetables. She told me, in a clearly annoyed voice, that it was one day.

The one thing the restaurant does not have is an online menu. I could always get some water and just sit there while everyone else is eating but that would be rude.

I am completely jaded when it comes to restaurants and, in particular, the work lunch outing since, usually, there are at least 15 people and while the time restraint is relaxed a bit, there is a certain hurrying through lunch. For me, it's not pleasant on several fronts, including the fact that most restaurants are using the axis of evil -- salt, fat and sugar -- to make meals tastier.

Of course, after the exchange, I felt bad. I swear, though, I exercise hard and I do treat myself but I don't want to treat myself with restaurant food. I am also jaded about people diminishing fat grams et al. For instance, why would I eat cheese with nine grams of fat when perfectly good reduced fat cheese is available? And why is cheese always my barometer?

I certainly don't want to forsake people but I don't want to abandon my way of eating each time an event comes up because they seem to occur often.

I won't even get into the whole splitting the check evenly when I've only had, say, soup...

Someone told me that their strategy is to send half of the meal away immediately. That's a method that doesn't sit well with me for two reasons: wasting food and if something is crappy -- eating half of it doesn't make it less crappy.

I'm being too rigid, aren't I? Don't answer that question; it was hypothetical.


Here's some info to chew on. Or not.

50 Fattiest Foods in America


Seven foods that experts won't eat.


Resource: Making Healthy Choices at Mexican Restaurants

Cilantro and Bean Sprouts On The Side

I'm a picky eater but it's a different picky than my leg dangling days at the table where I waited for a pardon. I was thinking about Cathy Erway's book, The Art of Eating In, again. Erway cooked tripe several times:

Offal has traditionally been reserved for the poor; hence, it is cheap, but people have been finding ways to make it more palatable across the world, in some cases turning them into delicacies, such as head cheese (made from simmering a pig's head and coagulating the pieces into a sliceable block) foie gras (the fattened liver of goose), fried sweetbreads (the thymus gland) or braised chicken feet, another one of my dim sum favorites...(221)

My folks love chitlins. I, however, have never wrapped my lips around them. The folks moan and tell me what I am missing but I tell them they may have my share for the rest of my life and I mean that sincerely.

In thinking about food that poor folks eat, I remember how my grandmother used to make sugar syrup; a bit redundant, no? My grandmother would add water to sugar and heat the concoction until it resembled syrup which would then be poured over biscuits or pancakes.

I once took a short trip to the store with my aunt and grandmother. My grandmother wanted to go but she was also hungry and didn't want to leave her hog head cheese behind. She had also added vinegar to the cheese. Oh my God, that was such a small car, the foulest smelling concoction and the longest trip ever.

What's the most exotic thing you've eaten? I haven't been much of an adventurous eater so I would have to say goat and once I heard another goat bleating nearby, that was the end of my adventure...

I had another work-related luncheon today. If it had not been someone that I have known for so long, I would not have gone. We went to Lemon Grass, a Vietnamese restaurant which had no nutritional information available. I decided to go with Chicken Egg Noodle Soup (Mi Ga):

Egg noodle soup with shredded chicken breast and vegetables.

I was given cilantro and beans sprouts on the side. This was, hands down, the best soup that I've had in ages. I took comfort in the fact that I haven't seen any overweight Vietnamese in the area. The portion was huge and my colleagues kept teasing me that it looked like I hadn't touched the soup. I shared some and then took the rest home.

Feeling Like Jimmy Swaggart

I was feeling Jimmy Swaggart-ish yesterday in a I have sinned... way.

One of my good friends is Bosnian and if you're Bosnian and it's your birthday, you pay for family and friends at the birthday dinner, a tradition that I should be able to go along with. Only, I have come to dread dining out and I hardly ever do it anymore but there are just certain occasions that one needs to show up for.

I knew that we were going to Laganini's -- a brave new restaurant that just opened up next to another Bosnian restaurant, Bosna Gold.


My friend told me ahead of time where we would be dining because she knew that I would want to do reconnaissance. I thought about getting fish or a salad with grilled chicken.

Tilapia... in pepper lemon sauce served with German potato salad
Chicken Salad... grilled or breaded

I even checked out the dressings.

Dressings...your choice - ranch, italian, french, thousand islands

Menu in hand, I saw that they didn't have the salad with grilled chicken available and I wasn't really feeling the fish. So, I ended up getting a gourmet pizza.

Margherita... fresh mozzarella, fresh tomato & basil

I also considered the Laganini Mediterranean Pizza with caramelized onion, crushed garlic, goat cheese, roasted red peppers, calamata olives and oregano.


Internally, I was freaking out as I was estimating how much four slices were going to set me back. Twelve hundred calories? The whole time I'm thinking: I can work this off; plus, the scale is not moving anyway; c'est la vie.

I need to learn how to eat out because, eventually, I'll be away from home for an extended period of time and may or may not have access to a kitchen.

I have nothing against pizza but, of course, I like to make it myself. The cheese seemed so thick and abundant on Laganini's margherita and my imagination continued to run amuck. At least I had a salad beforehand. Right?

Rolling Out To Rock Climb

Whenever I'm about to embark on a rock climbing adventure, the self-talk begins:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make it up the dang wall.

I'm probably also chitchatting with myself because of the waiver which, in part, reads:

I acknowledge the inherent extreme risks in rock climbing activities...

Last night, I was looking on the web for information about the ATC device because, all of a sudden, I couldn't remember which side feeds the climber.


Thanks to Outdoor Action, I didn't have to wonder too long about my little dilemma.

Mission and risk in mind, I rolled out of bed to be at Upper Limits by 10 a.m. because that's when the doors open and the joint is usually jumping.

It's always such a diverse crowd at UL, including a baby who was tethered to a floor anchor. That baby is the calmest one in the universe. There were also several dads exhibiting the patience of Job while belaying for their daughters. I love to see fathers hanging out with their girls.

One father told his apprehensive daughter to, basically, feal the fear and do it anyway. Daddy's got you, he said.

While waiting on a route (because it was crowded), I witnessed a climber who looked as if he was doing yoga and, then, ballet on the wall. It was an exquisite ascent.

I was about to belay and forgot to secure the ATC in the carabiner and I was about to feel bad but, before I could, Patti said that's why we do safety checks.

After we had exhausted ourselves and there is a point when you simply cannot ascend the wall anymore, Patti asked Jeremy and me if we wanted to go out to lunch. Since it was 1 p.m., it was definitely time for lunch but the mention of eating out causes me to fret. Patti suggested Crazy Bowls and Wraps and I didn't think that their fare would do much harm.

I ate half of my Caesar Chicken Wrap without even looking at the nutrition information. I'm glad that I only ate half of the sandwich because a whole one sets you back 720 calories.


It must be the brown rice, right? I was happy to see that Crazy Bowls has baked falafel. Holler! Looking at the calorie count, I should have gotten the falafel but I didn't spot it until I had already ordered.

Nepalese Or Vietnamese?

My, um, sometimes I don't know what to call the people that I work with:

Comrades-in-arms?

Banes of my existence?

Two of the people that I coexist with from 9 to 5 went out to grab lunch. The first one was going to a Nepalese restaurant and asked if I wanted something.

I was undecided but I had a cell number and an online menu. I was kinda feeling like some tandoori chicken but once I saw that a chicken breast and leg would be $15 dollars, my cooler head prevailed.

The next co-worker announced that she was going to Pho Grand and I couldn't resist the lettuce wraps.

With the way that I've been running to and from the gym, I haven't cooked in awhile and the wraps will make a wonderful start to dinner. I just hope that the filling doesn't have a gazillion calories.

Rescue Me

I don't think that I've eaten out since Jan. of '09. Frankly, I'm still apprehensive about dining out because I want to know what goes into my meal. However, I don't want to be like Sally in When Harry Met Sally who doesn't eat between meals or is a super picky nuisance when ordering at a restaurant.

I wanted to treat myself today and I thought I might give Stir Crazy, a restaurant that I used to frequent, a try but I couldn't find nutrition information online.

I finally decided to try Kaldi's Coffee's baked falafel which was quite tasty.

Greek Pita $6.99
baked falafel, hummus, and Mediterranean rice in a pita, grilled
and served hot with Kalamata olives, feta, fresh tomato relish
and Tahini dressing

Somebody rescue me because I felt like quite the glutton for eating the whole falafel sandwich and imagined that I had used up all of my calories for the day. I wondered what was Kaldi's idea of Mediterranean rice but, finally, I rationalized that I couldn't possibly gain a pound in a day and that I need to learn how to eat out without biting my proverbial fingernails. I'm incorrigible, though, because I just wondered about the calorie count of fingernails.