Random Chic

Kushiel's Legacy, a 9 book series by Jacqueline Carey It's awesome, intelligent fantasy alternative history with steamy sex scenes thrown in. What's not to love? I've read the LOTR trilogy a bunch of times over the years. I find I speak more eloquently when I've been reading those. I also love Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.. so many layers there, it's worth re-reading. Same with the Frank L. Baum Wizard of Oz books. A lot of the stories I love most are considered children's literature. Not a novel but I love Hans Christian Anderson's faery tale stories and could read them over and over.

I think it does matter where the sugar comes from.. I avoid refined sugar which these days comes from GMO beets (or high fructose corn syrup) not cane. However, I love low glycemic fruit like apples and berries in moderation. I tend to make one meal or snack a day all about the low glycemic fruit. My current favorite is apple slices dipped in almond or sunflower seed butter. Yum. The dairy sugar is a no no for me though (puts weight on me), if I am having yogurt (or butter or half and half) I limit it to a tablespoon or two not the whole cup.

I have seen this many times. My dog (that I had many years ago) thought floor work meant I wanted to have my face licked. My former housemate's cats thought forward stretches meant I was looking for a cat to pet. The one cat got into the floor work though knowing I would pet him during leg work if I had an arm free. It got to where if he heard my workout audio track going he'd come racing down the stairs worried he'd missed it. He loved that a human would lay down on the floor with him and seemed to totally revel in it. Mostly he didn't get in my way, occasionally I'd have to move him over a bit. I have a foam step for bench stepping that I had to keep well away from these same cats or they'd use it as a scratching post, it still has scars. These days the only pets in my home are three very small parrots and although they are allowed to fly around, they tend to stick to a certain area in the house and do not trouble me during workouts.

I guess, although I am convinced if more people in my swim class wet down beforehand the way I do, I would not encounter so many of their hairs in the water while I'm working out. lol.

Just curious if any rebels will be attending FaeryCon this weekend. I'll be there Saturday mainly to attend the "Bad Faery" masquerade ball. Hope to see you there. http://faeriecon.com/

My deepest condolences Hong. From how you describe her, I'm sure she wouldn't want you to blame yourself.. that "what if?" game we all tend to play just adds more stress. Life is a mystery.. and only so much sense in questioning what is when there's no way to rewind for a do-over. (((Hugs)))

I'm not doing too badly.. although at one point I'd had 14 days unbroken chain on the calendar only to backslide when the first cold snap of the year came. I have a hard time with that every year.. it's like I go into hibernation mode and sleep more, can't seem to get full, want to eat all the junk. But after a few days breaking my calendar chain I think my will power is back again.. at least until the next cold snap. At least luckily I'd been being so good on my plan before the cold snap hit that I only gained back recent losses.. hardhat on and back to the grindstone.

Yep Veralis, the steamed shrimp at O'Shuck's is good too, although I'm so busy working while I'm there that I tend to shop the nearby food area and my healthiest options are Steak on a Stake or Chicken on a Lance.. though sometimes I tire of those and get a chicken croissant sandwich or sometimes run up the hill to grab one of the hand dipped corndogs. Sometimes I just grab fast food or restaurant food before and after fair because I'm just too busy working to eat while I'm there. Nine weeks of doing that adds up. Today I'm getting back to a stricter dietary plan now that I'm home and the season is done.

On the subject of french fries, I love sweet potato fries and have a good recipe for them I'll post here. Sweet Potato "fries" You'll need: (If you want them spicy you can use the following spices.) 2 teaspoons ground cumin 1 teaspoon ground coriander 1 teaspoon hot paprika or regular paprika 1 teaspoon ground turmeric 1/2 (half) teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 (half) teaspoon ground black pepper 1/4 (quarter) teaspoon chili powder (or you can skip the spices above and replace them with a goodly amount of black pepper or white pepper) 2 tablespoons olive oil Butter, enough to grease your goodly sized baking pan 3/4 (three quarters) teaspoon salt 2 egg whites, slightly beaten 2 pounds washed sweet potatoes, cut into wedges (eighths) or whatever french fry shape you like should work fine. You can leave the skin on. Directions: 1. Preheat oven to approximately 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Ovens vary, you may want to adjust down to 350 degrees F if your oven tends to run hot. Prepare a large baking pan greased with butter. 2. Whisk together the olive oil, spices and salt in a large bowl. Place the slightly whisked (until they're mixed and a little frothy) egg whites in a separate large bowl. 3. Toss the sweet potato wedges first with the egg whites and then with the olive oil/spices/salt mixture. The egg whites make it so that the oil and spices stick to the sweet potato wedges. Arrange the seasoned wedges in a single layer on the prepared baking pan. 4. Bake in the preheated oven, turning every twenty minutes minimum, until they're crispy, about 40 minutes. Alternately, there's a restaurant in my town that makes very convincing tasting fries out of chick peas somehow that are really yummy, not sure how to go about it though, but am planning to research it.

Alacer brand "EmergenC" packets aren't too bad.. they have a small amount of real sugar but also pack 1000mg of vitamin C. (Many people find them helpful for migraines and hangovers incidentally.) I like the raspberry ones best, but the tangerine and orange ones are pretty good too. They're fizzy and nice in ice water especially if you have some crushed ice to use. 20 calories per packet, one packet makes a decent sized tumbler to drink.

Today will be unbroken chain day number 7, woot! I've been eating healthy and eating plenty but enjoying watching the weight fall off, I've been losing something like a pound a day! I've bumped up the exercise with lifting walking and swimming is part of that. Almost back down to my recent lightest. Some scale numbers.. which I don't obsess on but find it a good way to track my progress. At my heaviest a few years ago I was 157 lbs, on my 4'11" frame that's huge. I'm currently as of this morning down to 125 lbs. (At my lightest a year ago I got down to 122 lbs and since then I've only gone up to as heavy as 130 before knocking it back down to about where I am today.)

Cool 4114fly, nice to meet you.

I lost a few pounds last week staying strict on my plan (no dairy/no sugar) and gained them back over the weekend derp lol. Ren Fair food is yummy but decadent.. hard to eat right when on the road traveling too. Plus my hotel has a Starbucks in it and I can't resist having a vanilla latte in the mornings before Fair. I know.. excuses excuses.. But next weekend is the last Ren Fair weekend of the season and then I'll get really serious again. Although I'm doing pretty well lately sticking with my calendar/hardhat game.. I haven't broken the chain at all for 4 days now and plan to keep it going indefinitely. (In the last 14 day period I've broken the chain in one way or another on only 4 different days.) 4 days straight unbroken chain may not sound like much but it's a pretty big accomplishment for me. And at least I have done well to not gain the kind of weight I used to during the season.. I've mostly maintained although I'm up 5 lbs from where I was a year ago.. at that point I was on the too stressed to eat diet and am glad I'm not in that place now.