Thursday, March 6, 2008

Well...

So my 2008 list goes like this so far

/ Survive January
/ Get on a exercise and diet plan
/ Arrange payment play to control finances
/ Survive February


Let’s start with the smile worthy. I’ve lost 10 pounds!! Yes, it’s funny how you can probably gain that in a couple of weeks but it takes almost two months to lose. I’m so happy and proud of myself for it. I know it might not seem like a big accomplishment but to me it’s big. I’m fitting so well into all my size 10 clothing. (smiley) Everyone’s noticing too which is really great! Confidence boost.

It hasn’t been easy at all. I have semi taken the weekends off because I do control myself though I am able to eat out of my diet zone. I think it’s important to have good meals and treat yourself a bit. On the week it’s strict and under 1200 calories. I am logging all my weekday meals in a spreadsheet and monitoring the total of calories.

Wheat and Whole Grains have changed my life. I am still able to enjoy rice (in smaller portions) and pasta and still diet. I have switched to whole grain/wheat pasta (organic) and Brown rice. It makes so much of a difference. I am making delicious meals and yes, at the beginning you’re like what is this but once you condiment it right, you will find the delicious flavor in it. Of course, I eat these meals after going to the gym and working out for an 1/1.5 hours. So you know how hungry you feel after that….Everything tastes like Ruth Chris at that point! I have also turned to Safeway products in my dieting. Their organic line is great. They make Eating Right meals which are very good and in my opinion more tasty than Smart Ones and Lean Cuisines. I just enjoy them more. The Organic pasta sauce is very good. I still use ground beef or turkey. And don’t get me started on my lovely find of frozen veggies…The Santa Fe Mix. It contains corn, black beans, broccoli, and red peppers. Using some of these products, I even made my own version of vegetable fried rice. And I am sharing!

Ingredients
¾ cup of Santa Fe Mix
60 calories
1 cup of cooked Brown Rice (mahatma)
150 calories
Pam Spray
0 calories
Lemon (optional)
?
Olive oil (optional)
42 calories ( 1 tbsp)

Preparations:

Spread the skillet with Pam and heat. When hot add the veggies and stir fry (you can add a bit of salt to your taste). After 3 minutes, clear half the skillet and add the rice. Mix them up until everything is hot. At that point you can use the tbsp of olive oil on it and and squeeze a bit of lemon juice and stir. It goes great with fish!

Like I mentioned I’ve been hitting the gym 3-4 times a week. My goal was burning 400 calories while there but I’ve been increasing that total and now I am up to 600-630 calories per gym visit. So far so good. Not easy though. At all.

Shoe Alert

I have not bought a pair of shoes since early December. Isn’t that the saddest thing? On the other hand due to the weight loss, I have found a whole new wardrobe! You win some, you lose some. I do have a birthday coming….I sense a nice gift to myself!

Socially

I went out Friday and Saturday last weekend and had a good time both days. I went to a Dominican Celebration in DC and they had some food. Now, you all know I love my Dominican food like nothing else and the fact that someone else cooked it…oh yeah! Saturday we went to Salsa. I really had a good time there. It’s always good to let some time go by and then hit the salsa scene again. It’s much more fun that way than going every weekend.

Hanging with friends has become my thing. I had a date a couple of weeks ago but other attempts have been futile. I don’t know people. Just ain’t looking good. Then again, during the week I feel like I have no time. I go to work, hit the gym, then get home around 7. It gives me a couple of hours before sleep.

I’ve been getting to bed early for a couple of days now. It feels good not be ready to keel over in the mornings. So I might keep that up. Take advantage before baseball starts.

Speaking of…the boys of summer are approaching.

I can’t wait. This should be an exciting season of baseball. I can only hope my boys make it all the way. My Alex is looking great. I hope he has a year like 2007 but it will be hard. Those were video game numbers he was putting up and that would be hard for anyone to rival. Of course you know there will be crazy people out there expecting it though.

I can’t wait to see the standing Ovation my Andy is going to get at Yankee Stadium. It was heartbreaking hearing about him being one of the players on HGH but I think everyone understood him. He is such a beloved player that I think we easily identify and can see where he was coming from. He was trying to recuperate from an injury. When our bread and butter is threatened, sometimes we can do crazy things.

I am super excited about the kids. Hughes, Chamberlain, Kenny, my little pitching trio. I’m giddy to see them develop like I’ve seen Robbie Cano become one of the best 2nd basemen in the league. This should also be an interesting year for Melky Cabrera. Last year A-Rod took him under his wings and the difference was amazing.

The most drastic change is that on opening day, a new Joe will be there as manager. Joe Girardi. I think this will be a good change for the organization. While Joe Torre was loved, I think it was time for a change for the organization. He had become too inlove with certain players and it made me doubt his objectivity at times though you can’t argue with results. We made the playoffs every year with him here. We will see though. Go Yanks.

My shoutouts

To the little Lamb who became a little Homeowner! To V, who got an A in her class!!





Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Moving along.

It’s been a few days. I’ve been concentrating my efforts else where in the dating blog. Oh I’m a neglectful soul sometimes. That needs to stop that. Heavy Tuesday after a long weekend. I’m tired. I debated coming this morning since I have the three days off I took for this week but I left it for tomorrow. I have plans for that day off. I have to clean my second room which is an absolute mess right now, I will clean the rest of the house that way is set up for the whole week, and I will take care of some personal business matters. I will sleep in for a couple of hours as well.

This weekend was good. I went to Happy Hour last Friday with Catherine and Crystal then went to Mex for a while with Cat. It was that meet up group again and guess what. No one talked to us again, surprise surprise. Well actually, we met a couple of people who were very nice and chatted with us for a bit. Saturday did overtime then a quiet and lazy afternoon and evening home. Sunday I went to dinner with Vivian and then out with Cat and Morgan to some event. It’s good I was wearing a shirt I had from College since I time traveled once I stepped in the room. First, the crow was super young but before that as I paid, I was handed a red plastic up and told not to lose it because I would be using it all night…greeeeeeat.

Monday night I had a date. It was nice. It’s cool to talk to a guy who can carry a tasteful, yet interesting conversation.

Diet

I have switched stuff around in my diet. I want to avoid any sort of rut. I ate cereal in the mornings last week and had a variety of a peanut butter sandwich, eating right meal, salmon and veggies.

Once you get the hang of it, dieting is not all that hard. It’s tough when you go out for dinner. That’s the tricky part but once a week, that’s not really too bad.


Weight weight weight and money

So it seems that now I am a little more than 20 pounds away from my goal. It’s steady loss though I am only lose in small numbers but all progress is just that progress. I only went to the gym three times last week due to the weather on Tuesday. I will try to make it four on this one. Today’s workout is going to be a killer to my body.

I am praying for spring and higher temps to come our way soon. I want to walk outside.

Clothes are fitting better! I am hoping to lose enough I can go back to wearing stuff from before and that can be my new wardrobe since this money diet is cramping my spending style.

Do you realize I haven’t been to the mall in more than a month? Do you realize the last time I bought a pair of shoes was in mid December? WOW!
I have to say though, even though I am broke as daylight around 6:45 in the morning, I am feeling good at paying the bills on time and the impending payment of debts. You know there is nothing like having a plan. Thank you Angil!

Food for thought

I had an interesting conversation this week about people getting in their own way sometimes. It was about people who think they have the answer to every problem and can’t seem to make things work while other people can see the solutions so clear. Sometimes when we are in a problem we become so obfuscated that we don’t see that we’re going about the wrong way. My whole situation with finances was the prime example. I was so embarrassed and ashamed about my financial situation that I was having panic attacks and wasn’t sleeping all that well. People kept telling me you can solve this on your own and I’m imagining I could have at any other time but a month ago I was so deep in the mud mentally and even physically that I just couldn’t think. I didn’t see any way out of my problem. I couldn’t even make a simple budget plan. Many may think, damn is this chick dumb? How can you not do something so simple as to write your expenses down and manage every check around it. I just couldn’t.

Those are the moments when we have to make decisions. Mine was either keep dealing with it on my own and risking my health by making myself sick or sacrificing my pride and asking for help. I wallowed in shame but asked for help. I went to Angil and we met and she crafted this money diet and payment plan for me. It’s a tight one but I am following it and guess what? My stomach is no longer burning. I am not staying up at night screaming for my brain to shut up. I can breathe deeply without feeling like something’s sitting on my diaphragm. For that I cannot be thankful enough to all my friends who were there for me in this rough time.

You hear many clichés in life about friendship but when you’re down in the dumps and in need or in problems that you can’t see your way out of, that’s when you realize who your friends are. I want to thank the people who have helped me survive the past two months.
I'm a sap...deal with it!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

This ain't the CW but there's a Top Model in the House

It’s Monday (Now Tuesday) again. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR Why does Monday always come so fast? It was a good weekend over all. Things got accomplished. Blah. But as always nothing in my life starts or ends without drama. It all started with Friday's Saga.

I don’t think there was a time in my life when I walked into a room and felt that I needed or had to compete with the other women there. Normally, I don’t see my female friends or other women as threats to me. I keep wondering if I lack that female competitive drive that has to do with men. On Friday Cat and I went to a meet up event. We went there in Jeans but decked out…Cause that’s what we do. All my friends are the same way. When we go somewhere we dress like we’re going to the Vanity Fair party. We can be wearing jeans but we rock it. I had not been out in almost an month and a half so you know I had to bring it. Well, the minute we walked in, the men in the room turn to look at us and you saw it in their faces (oooohhhh). The women on the other hand, took one look at us, turned away, but you can hear the echo of the words they did not dare utter: Who invited these bitches?

At first I thought it was my imagination…no Bump that. It was me like always doubting what my gut reaction tells me about people. So most of them are sitting on a huge table where there was no room for us and we sit on a table by ourselves with one of Cat’s friends. We chatted for a bit and a guy came over and we got introduced and he stood there talking to us about politics and mundane stuff. At one point he abruptly says he has to go and you see his girlfriend call him over there. He never said another word to us. Then they all stood up and left and went to another bar without saying a thing to us. Well, we knew where they were going and headed there. They still said nothing to us.

I don’t get it. What is it about other women that is such a threat to us? We all heard stories of women who hang out with less attractive friends so they can look better. Or the infamous one about someone who compares herself to her other female friends and what they have then must go out and try to top it. I think the funniest one was a member of a sorority telling someone, I think I have the best body out of all the sisters. Oh and let’s not forget the brides who put the bridesmaids in the most hideous outfits so they cannot be outshined.

But I have to tell you, had it not been because we had to go somewhere else, the bitch in me would have gone up and talked to her boyfriend right in her face for a bit. All done with a super friendly smile on my face. I was already thinking about it.. I won’t disrespect another woman but if you’re acting like a veritable ass, I am all for making your life miserable. I am tired of women hatin on other women. It’s nauseating. It’s come to the point where we can no longer enjoy friendships because of it.

The other thing to that is…stop downing yourself. Everyone has their own attributes. By acting so insecure, you’re giving the other women all the power over you. However, in our case those sheisty heifers, they seem to be bound by the juice. You know the hater-rade.

Top Model Moment

So, Bree is a make up artist and she told me about a week ago about a photographer she is working with and both are trying to beef up their portfolios. They were looking for subjects to pose for them. That turned into --->




Weight Management

Well…I don’t think I lost anymore weight. Still at 159. My clothes look a lot better. The thing about me is that weight loss comes way after. You can first see it on my body. I don’t know why. I am changing the food patterns a bit to avoid the rut. For example today I had cereal for breakfast, salmon and veggies for lunch, and I will have Brown rice, Mongolian beef, and veggies for dinner. I’ve begun to realize that I need to add more snacks to my daily diet. Or divide my meals. I have been too hungry. I might do apples or Oranges.

I have also decided to give Crystal light a rest and go for teas again. This week is Oolong. Drinking 24 ounces a day. I also started a whole body cleansing process. This is something that has worked very well for me in the past.

Yesterday I had no desire to go to the gym but I went and made myself work out. Today though tired, I will go again. I need to do my 4 days.

My Cousin

Still no news

Financial

This is a tough plan, Angil has crafted for me. I have never felt so constricted about my spending. Everytime I have to think about dropping 5 or 10 dollars on something, it kills me. This is something I am used to do mindlessly. If I see something I want, buy it. After all it’s only a few bucks. Now I have to budget food, trinkets, ew.

Catching up with the friends I don't often see but saw this week…HINT HINT HINT

-The little Lamb is going to be homeowner by the end of the month!! CONGRATS!
-Jennifer looks amazing!
-Vivian is rocking the Power money woman/Hillary Clinton/Maxine Waters hair.

I’m out my good people. Before I go, I wanted to ask you something. If you meet a tall, sexy, educated, employed, funny, romantic man who likes sports, don’t be selfish, pass on my number and show him one of my top model pics. It’s what a true friend would do. HA!

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Winning, Same old Same Old, Bitchassness and Much More.

Well I have survived January! I said to myself the key to my sanity was make it through this first month of the year that has been so hard on me. Now I will need to be strong to survive the next three months. With the help of Angil, I have devised a plan that will straighten me out financially. It’s going to be a tough road but one that I am going to take on because I need to do this for me and my future.

Disheartening

Family is ok health wise. We have not heard anything or found my cousin. At this point, we are basically in limbo with it. We don’t know what will be done. It’s up to the family down there. One of my fondest memories of him was sharing our favorite snacks, white rice with ketchup and arguing about everything. I am still in mourning of him. It’s about to be a month and the not knowing is the hardest part. The suspicious way this happened is just unnerving and the uncertainty is basically eating at us.

Mundane

I am still dieting and working out. The hardest part of dieting is shrinking your stomach. It normally takes a couple of weeks to get yourself and your stomach used to the necessary rations; eating till you’re satisfied as opposed to eating till you’re full. I have found that it’s very true what they say about waiting about 5 minutes before you get seconds. That has been working for me. I almost out of the soy shakes. I am thinking for replacing them with Oatmeal in the mornings.

I’ve been going to the gym for three weeks straight now. My goal is to do Mon-Thursday and then additional days are optional. I am just trying to establish a routine to discipline myself. So far so good. I have to weigh myself to see if I can see any loss pound wise. I can tell you I definitely see it clothing wise. My size 10 Nine & Co pants look good on me. I’m wearing those today!

I am also doing sit ups on my exercise ball. I do those at home. I am going to start trying to do them in the mornings as well. That would probably mean I need to get up an extra 10 minutes earlier but I will see if it works. I just set my alarm to remind myself.

PSA

I don’t understand people. I am tired and sick of pettiness. Can you stop being ghetto for a second and think before you speak? Can you cut the loser mentality for once? Do you only connect on ignorance? It’s like the Novo Riche. Because you never had a danged thing, you opt for the gaudy and shiny. Be original, be free. Accept your limitations and try to improve them instead of being defensive about it. If you don’t know how to win, watch the way a winner behaves. A true winner, even in a moment of loss, can still rise above it with the heart of a champion. Act like you’ve been there. Bitchassness is not the way to go.

Vote

This election is too important for anyone to miss. Please go out and cast your ballot. A lot is depending on the outcome. Primaries are as important as presidential elections. Your vote counts for something. Political affiliation is very personal but if you want my advice, vote Democrat. LOL. It’s the truth. We have two great candidates as and as long as one of them is the next president, we can’t go wrong.

Advice

Wash your face with cold water. It will diminish the look of your pores. If you make this a habit, your skin will look smoother and radiant. My routine is wash with good face soap, I use the face brush to clean it completely, and then rinse it with almost freezing water. I only use the cold side of the faucet. Another good thing is since you are not supposed to dry your face with a towel or paper after using the brush; I tap it clean with my open palm. Yeah, it’s like you’re slapping yourself dry. Ha ha ha (don’t do it too hard though) that’s also good to help you firm your facial skin.


The Joy of the Win!

My Giants won the Super Bowl! My Eli is the MVP! That was the most exciting game I’ve seen in a while. I am just so happy about that. It’s funny that a few years ago I hated football. Mostly, I was never raised in a culture to like it. When I first came to live here and through out high school my dad used to call Football season the curse. It was really funny.

About 4 years ago, while listening to Sports Radio when I was working in New Rochelle, they interrupted Yankee coverage to announce that the Giants had traded for Eli Manning. From there on they would talk about this kid for days and football. I was so curious about him that I began watching games and reading articles about Football. Well, low and behold, before I knew it, Janny started to like Football. I began watching the Giants games and following Eli’s stats. So I have always felt that Eli made me a fan of the game. Because of so much talk about him having a brother and all, I also began to follow a bit of the Colts. So my favorite team is the Giants, followed by the Colts.

As you can imagine, Sunday’s victory feels very special. NY is a tough place for athletes because the town is ruthless if you don’t succeed. The past 4 years have been pure torture for any Eli/Giants fan. I have to endure that twice because I am a Yankees fan whose favorite player is Alex Rodriguez. So now I have one of my boys on top of the world and now I need the other one to get there. I need that ring on Alex’s finger.

My highlights of XLII:

-The Eli escape followed by the Tyree Catch (I was amazed)
-Watching the defense (Strahan, Mitchell, Alford, Justin Tuck -2 times) just layout Brady time after time (that’s what he gets! Somewhere Bridget Moynahan is smiling and the little baby is wearing a number 10 Jersey.) God don’t like ugly.
-Plax’s prediction and the fact that everyone killed him but it was almost on the money.
-Osi Umenyiora…enough said
-Strahan, Toomer, and Feagles getting their ring
-Big man Jacobs…He’s a force.
-Kevin Boss…Watch out Shockey…he’s younger and doesn’t cause as many problems as you do.
-Kevin Tuck
-Tiki somewhere eating gallons of crow
-Watching Peyton concentrated on the game like he was playing on it. Gotta love him.
-The commercials were ok. I love the Audi one with the Godfather reference.
-The celebrations. I wish I could be at the parade L

My Men

Pitchers & Catchers Report: 10 days 51 min as of right now. I can’t wait. Yanks first game is against University of Florida in Tampa. I am also looking forward to them coming to VA Tech. I might go to that game.

I’m gone now.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

We back to this




THE JINTS ARE IN THE SUPER BOWL! Go Eli! My little man has grown up. Go Plax! Go Straham! GO GIANTS!

So it’s been a while since I posted anything. Last time it was all about being hurt. 2008 is my year to work on me. Like a good baseball team that’s not

doing so well, I have decided to take this year to retool and rebuild from within in order to stay competitive in the years to come. As you all know this is physically, emotionally, and financially. I am still working on surviving January financially. I won’t lie to you, it has been a rough month. It’s found me with some panic attacks and scared over what the future entails for me financially. That’s why my first goal was to rebuild myself and and restructure the ways I spend my money. I need to build up savings, repair credit, and catch up on bills.

In the emotional part, as many of you know, one of my cousins is missing. He went fishing with a buddy and according to the friend the boat started to catch water and the motor fell off. This guy says my cousin jumped off the boat even though he begged him and tried to stop him. He has been missing for almost three weeks now. The search has been on and nothing so far. I have taken to a period of mourning until we find out what happened to him. We were very close even though we had not seen each other in years. When I was younger we used to walk to school together and we fought and argued like crazy. LOL. Life is too short and precious and those moments seem like yesterday.

My second goal for the year comes in the physical department. While I am not obese, I must adopt healthier habits. Also, I know that I do not feel well when I am overweight so I have decided to tackle that as well. I have been going to the gym for the past three weeks. Some times I’ve gone 3 days, sometimes 2. I am beginning to try to discipline my body to go at least 3 times, preferably 4, and optimally 5. I want to make exercise part of my daily life from now on. Sometimes I’ve gone and taken a class but mostly I hop on the treadmill and I do intervals at different speeds and elevations. I think that works best. I’M EVEN SWEATING! I never sweat at the gym. I guess that’s the only good thing about not having that many good looking guys at SSA. You can go to the gym and focus on work outs. God knows I would rather concentrate on how many calories I’m burning than looking at Strom Thurman as he jogs next to me.

On that note, why do ugly men with big pipas (belly), who look like they’re 4 months pregnant insist on posting laying down pics on dating sites? I mean seriously, um, it’s not going to make anyone want to jump in with you. And if I didn’t have a hard time already getting past your badly kept face, now I have to see you laying down with some plaid boxers. I mean, I appreciate the confidence but still…

As far as eating goes, I have been mixing a few diet plans. I started doing my veggies and meat and low carb during the day but that doesn’t work with me. I even started with weight watchers but I don’t know if the point system adapts to my life style. So I have taken into combining the different styles. I am counting points during the day/calories as well and then eating a reasonable dinner at night. I have discovered brown rice and that I can survive eating only one cup of rice. Also, one of my biggest weaknesses is pasta. I have been buying wholegrain or wheat pasta. In the past few months, I’ve gotten reacquainted with vegetables mixes. I found that I really dislike cooked carrots and that’s why I was having so many problems finding mixes that I actually like. I like my carrots raw.

Another measure I have taken is to go back to the things that worked for me in 2005 when I dropped about 30 pounds. I am keeping low calories during the day, eating good wholesome meals at night, and using the weekends to reward myself but not go overboard.

Per the calorie count website, my daily calorie intake should be 1250. I’ve been beating that for the past two weeks. I am going to start telling you about this week because I don’t want to overly bore you.

Monday: Dinner was a cup of brown rice, 2/4 of veggie mix, and baked salmon teriyaki
Daily total: 965 cals
Tues: Dinner was a cup of brown rice with a cup of chicken veggie stir fry.
Daily total: 786 cals (Woohoo!)

Btw, I’ve lost 4 pounds…yeah I know…not much but still. It makes me happy.

On diverse news that have me interested, Tatyana the Tiger need not have died. Dumb taunting kids! Angelina Jolie is definitely pregnant. If you saw the SAG awards you would know why I say that. Brad even scruffy as he was Sunday is super hot.

Sports: 15 days till pitchers and catchers report. Yankees have my man again for another 10 years. LET’S GO YANKS.

Dominican Republic has two teams going to the Caribbean World Series. One of them is my team Licey and the other is the Aguilas. As long as one of them wins, I am happy but I am rooting Licey.

R.I.P Heath Ledger.