Exquisite Turmoil

Had a root canal yesterday x.x Man, my face hurts. That whole side of my head is throbbing. Ah well, I suppose it can’t last too long. Got the results back from my MRI as well and, disappointingly, absolutely nothing. Not that I was hoping for a brain tumor or anything, but I really was hoping to find out what’s up with the headaches / passing out.

Anya had a doctor’s appointment recently as well (ear, nose and throat) since she snores like a fiend. Not that I ever could have guessed it, but they want to take out her adenoids and tonsils. Seems like it’s pretty much standard procedure, tbh. Most people I know have had one or the other removed :p She’ll tell anyone who’ll listen (which is everyone she talks to, since she’s so cute) that she’s going to wear a mask so she falls asleep and then they’re gonna take out her thingees with a knife!  But it’s not gonna hurt, because she’ll be asleep!

I love how she’s so bossy and know-it-all and can’t ever stop talking. She reminds me of Dan :p

Well, MRI is scheduled — March 5th. And a root canal on the 11th >.< Blah. Not really looking forward to that, but I suppose it needs to be done. As I’ve already said, I’ll update here once I get the results back from the MRI. Hoping that it’s just migraines and low blood pressure, but we shall see.

As to WoW — after much drama with our old guild (and I will not talk too much about that here, since I have no desire to foment drama), I am now somehow a guild leader in my own right. It’s a small guild made up of those of us who managed to get booted from our old guild (all I shall do is assure you that we were definitely in the right), and some people who left RwD before. We have our first Karazhan raid this Sunday! We’ll need to bring along some friends and maybe a PUG or two, but we’re hoping to prevail through sheer force of our awesomeness.

In any case, we have the awesomest name ever, and I’m sure that it will help to ensure our success. It reminds me of the names of some of the old top end EQ guilds. A large part of why I liked the name, I suppose.

Anyway, check out our uber guild site that has like.. no front page :p

Link of the day: Afterlife!

In case I haven’t mentioned it before we are (obviously) on the Rexxar server.

I am so, so awful at posting — truly. I’ll remember to blog for like a week straight, and then not blog at all for a month :p Anyway, lets get caught up here. Health issues, or MMOs first? Lets go for MMOs first, those are more fun.

Dan and I have been playing WoW again. It’s kind of a hard game to get away from, because it’s the only game where you can actually play with people. Playing with people is nice. We’ve been playing for.. a month now? I don’t recall exactly. In any case, we’ve been 70 for two weeks now (after 9ish /played to hit 70) and are enjoying the game immensely. Raiding is quite fun and we’re hoping to get in some real Kara progression with our guild (Running with Daggers). We’ve met some really great people through the guild and are also hoping for tons more heroic runs with them (for badges, of course) before Sunwell!

On to health issues (and I’m sure there will be more WoW updates at some point). If you’ve known me for some time, you probably know that I faint / black out / get dizzy practically every day and that I suffer from near constant headaches. Now that I *finally* have medical insurance other than crappy military care, I went in for a visit to the doctor to see if he can tell me anything other than “well it’s not a thyroid problem”. On a side note, I really really liked this doctor. Dr. Rubbelke for anyone in the Scottsdale area — I swear he spent nearly forty minutes talking to me today and finding out everything he could, and I’m sure anyone who has been to a doctor recently knows that you’re lucky if they spend five minutes with you.

In any case, he gave me a sample of some various migraine medicine to see if any of them clear up my headaches (when I get a really nasty one, not just my normal constant ones), but he doesn’t really know that I’m having migraines right now, since I lack light / noise sensitivity, any tenderness to the touch, and I am not incapacitated by my headaches (although I attribute a lot of that to my high tolerance for pain and my refusal to let a headache get in the way of my life), etc, etc, etc.. Basically I am lacking all of the symptoms of a migraine except for the nasty headache that is unresponsive to medicine :p

So anyway, he’s trying to get me set up (through my insurance company, of course, since they have to approve these things) for an MRI since the combination of headaches and seemingly unconnected black out spells seems strange to him. Anyway, I’ll keep everyone (that being, Ryan and Dan since no one else reads this :p) posted as to when my MRI is and what any results are. I’m sure they’ll discover that my brain has turned into some kind of computer chip to allow me to play MMOs more uberly, and then I’ll become a national wonder.

I don’t really have anything to say, although I imagine that by the end of this blog I will have found 700 different tangents to go off on and it will end up quite long indeed. Basically, I am bored out of my mind right now. I haven’t been bored all day, of course, but I’m bored right now. Lets see — I swung by the bank to get the money for my treadclimber (which we picked up today, whee!!), went to my Grandma’s new place.. did a puzzle, watched “The Last Unicorn” and “Zoom” (very cute, by the way), had lunch… Lunch was Butternut Squash soup. Comes in a cardboard container (in the soup aisle, not refrigerated), made by a company called “Imagine”. It was ridiculously delicious, and I definitely suggest buying some if you see it. I sprinkled a little nutmeg and cinnamon in mine and added a dollop of natural goat cheese (comparable in consistency to warm cream cheese, but crumblier). Sooooooo good.

Dinner tonight was also delicious. We had mini-penne (we eat mini-penne a lot) tossed with steamed asparagus and chicken (the chicken wasn’t steamed, of course — just one of those precooked Foster Farms packages), and Walden Farms 0 calorie Alfredo sauce. The Alfredo doesn’t really taste like Alfredo, but with a little salt and a lot of pepper added it is actually quite good. On a side note, the Walden Farms marinara is quite tasty. The scampi, peanut butter, and jellies are all decent — the consistency is just a bit strange, but on a piece of toast (the peanut butter and jelly, duh) they aren’t bad at all. The BBQ sauce is really good and I would definitely definitely suggest trying it. My next order will also include an order for the apple butter, which I am definitely itching to try.

I think I also mentioned in my previous Walden Farms post that I ordered some 0 cal chocolate syrup as well. I used that (plus Splenda and fat free evaporated milk) to make some Irish Cream today. I made a regular batch as well (well, three regular batches, but they fit into one old Maker’s Mark bottle) with good’ol sugar, Hershey’s and standard evaporated milk, but I am most excited for the low-cal version to mature. 8oz of the regular version is close to 600 calories and 8oz of the low-cal version will be 185ish. Still hefty for a drink, but definitely much better and I have to have my Irish Cream for the holidays!

Oh, for anyone curious, here is the recipe! I’ll list changes to the recipe for the low-cal version in italics.

• 1 1/2 cups of evaporated milk / 1 1/2 cups fat free evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup Irish whiskey (I use Jameson) / 1/2 cup Irish whiskey
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar / 2/3 cup Splenda
• 2 Tbsp chocolate syrup / 2 Tbsp Walden Farm’s chocolate syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 tsp instant coffee

Mix it all together, stick it in a bottle, shake really well and chill in the fridge for at least a week to let the flavors meld. Serve simply over ice, mix it with your coffee, or blend with vanilla ice cream for a tasty dessert!

On another side note, I think I might like to take a pottery class (wheel). I’ve always had a desire to do something creative, but I am terrible at drawing / painting, crocheting and knitting are both too… mindless… I am too shy / nervous to share my writings with anyone, and aside from that I never have any good story ideas. Pottery just seems very intriguing. I’m hoping to beg Dan into a class (or perhaps I’ll use whatever Christmas money I get to sign up for one). Dan said he might consider going with me to a pottery class. Not that he is particularly taken with the idea himself, but he said he would like to go with to watch me be happy. Apparently I am cute when I get what I want ^_^

Anyway, this is starting to get pretty long. I did say that would happen, didn’t I? So, I sign off for now.

And Disney soooooon! Jamie comes tomorrow, then Disney when we wake up!!!

I know I say this like.. every day (at least out loud, I’m not certain offhand how many times I’ve said it in my blog), but my husband is the most adorable, sweetest, bestest husband ever! Yes, I know bestest isn’t a word, but it fit anyhow. As to what prompts my husband worship for the day, Dan is going to buy me a Bowflex Treadclimber too!! I always loved using the treadclimber at the gym, even if it was hard to find an empty one… They only had four and you’d have to like, sit around waiting for one to open up, and then fight with the other ten people waiting for it.

Basically, it’s a combination stepper and treadmill. It feels most similar to an elliptical, but because your feet aren’t stuck on those teeny little elliptical stepper pad things, you have a much freer range of motion and it feels better on your knees. The best part (to me anyway) is that you set the speed like on a treadmill, so you have to keep up. On a manual treadmill or an elliptical I tend to start off at a decent pace and then just slowly piddle down to barely walking. I am inherently lazy. I greatly benefit from having an enforced speed! Anyway, whenever I’ve used the treadclimber at the gym it’s like.. 20 minutes, your legs are tired, you’re dripping sweat, etc…

I know I’ve mentioned it before (probably countless times), but I hate hate hate running. Basically, all of my cardio since we stopped going to the gym has been — walking with Dan. Which is not really cardio. I might attempt a jog or two during the day (since the only thing I hate more than running is running with someone who runs faster / longer / better in every measurable way than me), but I really can’t with the kids. I thought about getting a treadmill since they’re cheap and like.. standard.. but then we come back to the point of — I HATE RUNNING. So then I got to thinking, I hate running, but I don’t hate using the treadclimber, and honestly, given how slowly and pathetically I run, 30 minutes on the treadclimber burns as many calories for me as 30 minutes on the treadmill. Obviously, for someone like Dan a treadclimber wouldn’t be a great investment, but for me..

So anyway, I’ve been looking for a couple of weeks now (since right about when we got the Bowflex) for a treadclimber, but they’re all so freaking expensive! I haven’t seen any for like.. under $1250 and I couldn’t justify spending that much after we’d just bought the Revolution, especially since I could always just suck it up and get a cheap treadmill -.- But anyway, I found one for $500! And, of course, my darling sexy sweet wonderful man said I could get it! So we’re going to pick it up tomorrow ^_^ I probably won’t really get a chance to use it right away since we’ll have to set it up which I’m sure will take a while.. and then Friday Jamie flies into town, and Saturday (like 4am) we leave for Disney (a girly trip — Anya, Pumpkin, Jamie, Katie, me). I’m sure Dan will have it up and running by the time I get back though, and my intention is to use it every night when Dan gets home from work and is doing his weight routine, and I’ll just continue doing my normal weight routine in the mornings. Hopefully this will break the weight plateau I’ve been stuck at for the past.. I dunno.. it feels like forever. For reference, I’m at 132 right now. My goal is really like.. I dunno. If I’m actually at 27% body fat then I need to lose around 10% to get visible ab definition, which is my goal, meaning I need to drop 13 pounds. To me, it really seems unreasonable that I would need to weigh 119lbs. Doesn’t that seem too low? But I suppose I’ll also be putting on muscle weight in the meantime so I won’t end up at 119 when I get ab definition. Oh well. Here’s to hoping the treadclimber kicks things into gear for me.

Oh yes, I will obviously post a Disney summary and pics when we get back!

Well, I did manage to get a little more cardio into my diet today. I went for a lovely slog (that being a slow, pathetic walk/jog) with my father through the desert today. We saw a jackalope (but not really, since they don’t exist.. but I did spend some time trying to convince Dan that I saw one — he didn’t believe me). I suppose it doesn’t really count as cardio when I am completely pathetic and can’t jog for more than like 5 minutes, but it’s better than nothing, I guess. Eventually I shall be a jogging champion.

Anya also went to her first birthday party today, for a girl she knows from school named Jacquelynn. The party was at “Pump It Up” which is basically just a building full of different moon bounces. The kids, of course, had a wonderful time. Dan and I also got in some quality bouncing. We had a lovely race through the obstacle course, and I am shamed to admit that he stomped me. After I started before even telling him we were racing (I had a pretty good head start). I managed to maintain my cheated lead throughout most of the obstacle course, but the last barrier is just a big wall to climb and then you go down a slide, and whereas I had to… climb… the wall, Dan was just able to leap to the top and slide down. Oh, to have such long legs. Ah well, I suppose it’s only fair that he won after I cheated. Anya, of course, wanted to race him after that and managed to beat him handily.

Much as I’d like to blog more right now, especially since I missed blogging yesterday (the internet was being awful), my Aunt Deborah is here for a short visit and we’re having a little birthday bash for her tonight, so I suppose I must go eat, drink, and be merry. We’re having a blind wine tasting tonight — should be fun, although I am not much of a wine connoisseur.

Well, back to the diet board, today. Dinner tonight will be grilled chicken, peas, and brown rice. Unfortunately, trying to eat super-low calorie can often get.. boring. Which had me bemoaning the fact that I can’t put BBQ sauce on my chicken. I could, of course, but it seems like such a waste of calories just to add a little bit of flavor. Then I remembered about Walden Farms.. I had purchased their products once a while ago and really liked some of it (the chocolate and pancake syrup particularly, not so much the salad dressings, although Ranch was pretty decent), so I figured I’d order up some more today. For those who don’t know what Walden Farms is (probably everyone, I don’t think very many grocery stores carry their stuff, but you can always order it online), they make 0 calorie, 0 sugar, 0 carbs, basically 0 everything dressings, dips, spreads, sauces, etc. So anyway, I ordered up some strawberry and raspberry jam, some peanut butter, a coupla of different pasta sauces, some BBQ sauce.. can’t wait until it gets here, to try it out. I’ll have to make a post when it arrives (as I eat it) to let you know how it tastes. Obviously, it’s not like eating the real thing but neither is margarine, diet soda, wheat pasta, or any other number of healthy or otherwise “diet” foods. I suppose I subscribe to something my mother once said in that “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. I’m sure not everyone agrees, but I’d rather have abs than BBQ sauce. Not that I have abs. Well, I do have abs, everyone with a torso has abs (at least I’m pretty sure :p), but they definitely aren’t visible yet. I think I heard somewhere (probably from Katie) that most women need around 17% body fat to start seeing ab muscles. I still have a loooong way to go if that is the case. I’m hoping my scale lies when it says that my body fat percentage is 27% — which would put me in the “above average” category (as in the bad above average, as in having more fat than average). I don’t feel above average, but =/

I guess I really need to start mixing more cardio into my workout. I went for a walk / jog today (I’ll be fair and admit that it was mostly walk and a lot less jog), but I don’t really get out and do much cardio at all. When we were going to the gym, I spent most of my time on the treadmill and a lot less time on the weight machines.. I guess things have kind of flip-flopped now. The Bowflex is so easy to use that I just always want to hop on it and get to lifting, but I haaaaate running outside. It’s always so hot and sunny (I don’t wake up early enough to run in the am, nor do I want to) and I feel like every person in every car that drives past is just STARING AT ME WONDERING WHY I RUN SO SLOW or something like that. Or, if I’m with Dan, I feel like he’ll just be puttering along beside me, grumbling to himself about how slow I am, and how much I’m cutting in on his workout. I guess I need to get over it and run more. Or buy a treadmill. Not that I think Dan will go for that anytime soon after we just bought the Bowflex.

Link of the day: Walden Farms

..when it consists of fried okra, fried catfish, and some good’ol homemade mac and cheese, swimming in calories. Not that I actually believe any of this to be diet food, but.. anyway. Stopped at the grocery store to grab some nice low-cal chicken breasts and soup :p when I was waylaid by the fact that they actually HAD OKRA. They never have okra. So, of course, I had to grab some. The only way to cook okra (imho) is fried, and you can’t have fried okra without some fried catfish.. which, of course, leads right into homemade mac and cheese. It was a meal destined to be. It goes really well with the total lack of exercise today too, since Dan and I have been forced to cancel our planned run for the day due to unforeseen (and unfortunately for you, unexplained) circumstances. Guess I’ll just have to kick my ass really hard on the Bowflex tomorrow. Not that any amount of ass kicking tomorrow is going to burn anywhere NEAR the calories that this dinner is going to provide me with. On the plus side, Friday afternoon should be spent hiking Pinnacle Peak with the Scottsdale Mom’s Club (no, that is not an official club). At least I think they’re going this Friday, and not next Friday. Guess I better find out for sure!

Link of the day: CrazyAuntPurl and her fried okra recipe (the best!!)

I swear, men always have it easier. Dan and I are sitting down talking today while he’s doing his workout, and he’s saying how he wants to go on the 6-week diet plan in the Bowflex book, since he’s not sure that just working out is going to drop his (practically non-existent) gut. Then we get to talking about what he eats in a day, and he’s estimating that he doesn’t even take in 2000 calories. This sounds strange to me, since I know he eats a foot long sub from Subway for lunch every day, as well as a bag of chips with a 44 oz (not diet) soda. Apparently my darling husband has not been watching his calories for long, because any consummate dieter would immediately recognize that as like a full day’s worth of food. But, of course, I have to get on the internet to prove to my sweetheart that a foot long meatball sub does not contain somewhere in the range of 500 calories. His soda contains more calories than he thinks his meal does :p I guessed it at 1100, he thought I was crazy. You will soon discover, however, that I am always right. That puppy is sitting at 1120 calories. Plus 230 for chips. Plus 550 for soda. I wish that I could eat a 1900 calorie lunch every day without packing on the pounds.

In any case, the decision now is for him to get a 6″ sub (I have no idea what kind, but any 6″ will be an improvement), drop the chips and start bringing a microwave soup from home, and bring diet soda from home (since he doesn’t like diet Coke and that is all that they have at Subway). So yes, it’s patently unfair that hubby can easily drop like 1300 calories from lunch. Lunch. Without too much effort. Yet I can’t really think of a single way in which I can cut calories. Aside from like.. not eating.

For me, breakfast consists of like.. 130 calories of oatmeal. Lunch is 170-220 calories of soup. Dinner is generally a small portion of baked / grilled chicken or fish with a heaping serving of vegetables and some brown rice or a baked potato with 0 calorie spray butter and garlic. I usually don’t snack, but if I do it’s like.. a 100 calorie pack of Oreos, or around the same calorie amount of popcorn. I really can’t see how I’m eating more than 1500 calories a day, if that. I know back when I bothered to track it, I had to keep adding stuff in to make sure I got over 1200, for safety’s sake. I guess I’m just baffled. I will drop into the 120s god dammit >.< I think food just hates me, and loves Dan. Ah well.

Link of the day: Bowflex Insider

Whee, had my first real workout on the Bowflex this morning. Dan and I messed around with it last night, but I really just did one set of everything to figure out how to move the arms and cables and such. Dan did a full workout last night (and one after work today). Anyway, I really liked it. I found the machine to be really smooth, and it isn’t hard to set up and change between exercises. I guess it kind of seems confusing at first because there are so many cables and accessories, but it’s actually quite intuitive once you’ve done a few moves and everything “clicks into place” with how it works. I’m sure it wasn’t confusing for Dan, but for measly mechanically challenged people like me :p

Right now I’m bugging Dan to make me a website to keep track of our weight loss efforts. I’m hoping for it to have like.. our measurements by week with a pic of us underneath. And then, of course, you’ll be able to compare week per week like say you wanted to see your measurements week 1 v. week 3, and it would pull it up side by side. And a little thingee to compare pictures week by week. It all sounds so.. unsophisticated when I type it out like that, but I can’t really think of a better way to describe it. Anyway, I’m off for the night, I think, to try to explain to Dan wth I’m talking about with this website x.x