Fat Girl Learns To Run

Now Eat This ---------- Day 221

I’m tired tonight so I don’t have much energy to write much.  Lately I have been seeing Rocco DiSpirito, who is a chef, on various TV shows promoting his book Now Eat This.  The concept of the book is to take comfort foods and prepare them in a way that makes them healthier.  Most of the recipes in the book are around  350 calories.  On the shows that Rocco has been on, they usually mention that if you want this recipe to go on their website.  I was intrigued by some of Rocco’s dishes so I decided to print some recipes from the show’s website.

Having a copy of a recipe in hand when I went grocery shopping over the weekend, I bought all the ingredients to make Turkey Enchiladas.  Actually, I handed the recipe to my son in the store and told him to find all the ingredients.  Since my son is on Spring Break this week, I told him to make the enchiladas tonight so I won’t have to think about what’s for dinner.   When I got home from work today, my son wasn’t home but left me instructions on how to finish the enchiladas before they were to be baked. I put the final touches on the enchiladas and baked them. 

For dinner I had one of the enchiladas and I must say it was really good.  Since I have been dieting, I have stayed away from Mexican food.  How can I go to a Mexican restaurant and not have a bowl of chips and margaritas with my meal?  By cooking Mexican food at home I totally avoid being tempted by all the other menu items that would add many more calories to my meal. Since I was impressed by Rocco’s recipe, I might go and buy his book to try out more healthy recipes.

The Albino in me ----------Day 220

It’s finally starting to get warmer this week.  I still need to wear a coat but I could put the scarf away.  After work I planned on running outside.  Since it was warmer, I decided to wear my long black shorts.  The sun was still shining when I ventured out.  As I started walking to the path, I looked down at my legs and realized how white my legs looked against my shorts.  I felt like I was part albino.  My legs don’t seem that white to me when I am indoors but once outside, yeeks, my legs looked really scary.

After my run, it was time for some dinner.  When I went grocery shopping over the weekend, I bought some kale.  This is not a green that I have eaten much in the past but I decided to embrace this vegetable.  I steamed the kale and then added a little olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  I actually ate a whole bowl of kale and just a little protein.  Speaking of protein, I bought this thin piece of veal scaloppini (it was on sale) and just quickly fried it in a pan.  I couldn’t believe how quickly it was cooked.  This is goes to show that you can create a healthy meal in no time at all.

Related to food, I came across this article on the internet about what some waiters said went on in restaurants where they worked.  I thought I would share two of their comments.  All I can say is ‘Stay away from the lemons’. 

#1

Now that I’ve worked in a restaurant, I never ask for lemon in a drink. Everybody touches them. Nobody washes them. We just peel the stickers off, cut them up, and throw them in your iced tea.

#2

The single greatest way to get your waiter to hate you? Ask for hot tea. For some reason, an industry that’s managed to streamline everything else hasn’t been able to streamline that. You've got to get a pot, boil the water, get the lemons, get the honey, bring a cup and spoon. It’s a lot of work for little reward.

Gumby ----------- Day 219

After work today I had an appointment with a periodontist.  I basically went there as an added precaution that everything was ok with my gums before I got braces.  I thought that I would have a quick appointment but no such luck.  Apparently my gums are not in the best shape and I need to have deep cleaning to get out all the plaque and tartar out from beneath my gums.  The periodontist said that I had angry gums.  With this type of cleaning they only do one side of your face at a time which means setting up two appointments within a week’s time.  This does not sound like fun at all.  Now I understand why people don’t like to go to the dentist.

I have to look on my bright side of things.  If I hadn’t planned on having braces, I wouldn’t have seen a periodonist and my gums would have stayed untreated and my teeth could have fallen out.  Having this cleaning isn’t the worst thing that could happen to me but for some reason it has really gotten me depressed.  All I want to do now is get a pint of ice cream and eat the whole thing while watching a mindless reality TV show.  That would make me feel better for awhile but I would hate myself in the morning for doing it.  Instead I will eat the healthy soup that I made over the weekend.  I am still not in a good place mentally so I will still watch a reality TV show (instead of exercising) so I don’t think about my gums.

Super-Sized ----------- Day 218

I was watching a show on TV that focused on the effects of being overweight.  Most of the topics discussed were things that I have heard about before.  There was one thing discussed that I never really thought about.  It was about dying.   When a person dies, in most cases the person is placed in a casket to be buried.  The problem is when the person who dies is morbidly obese and the normal size casket is not big enough for the person.  The family of the obese person needs to order a super-sized casket.  The show brought out a regular sized casket and one of those super-sized caskets.  For me seeing the difference in those caskets was really eye-opening.   It was also very sad.

In my personal life, I had a cousin in Austria who died at an early age due to complications resulting from him being overweight.  I haven’t thought about him for awhile since he died many years ago but seeing the large casket made me think of him.  I just hope that no one else that I know dies due to being overweight.

If the Shoe Fits ----------- Day 217

When my son and I were driving home from the grocery store this morning, I told him that as soon as I get home I am going to run on the treadmill.  He then tells me he wanted to run when he got home because he wanted to get his run in before going to the library.  Then the light bulb went off in my head; I will run outside.  What a novel idea!  I put on my new running clothes and was ready to run.  For some reason I just didn’t feel like walking the 3 long blocks to get to the Forest Preserve so I got a ride there.  I get out of the car and start to walk over the grass to get to the path.  Then I look down at my shoes and wonder why the CARA id tag is not on my shoe. It took me a moment to realize that I put on my walking shoes instead of my running shoes.  What an idiot!

I didn’t want to abuse my feet in those shoes so I had to walk home and put on the correct shoes.  So much for not wanting to walk those 3 blocks.  After putting on my running shoes, I headed back to the path.  This time I was going to run North on the path instead of running South which I have done in the past.  It really was a good weather day to run.  The path was very deserted, very few runners or bikers.  It had this serene feeling as I was running.  My legs felt very heavy running today but I got through my 4 miles. 

This afternoon, I spent my time in the kitchen prepping the food that we bought today for future meals.  I watched a show this morning where Jaime Oliver was demonstrating some of his recipes.  One of the dishes was mashed potatoes.  Jaime said to scrub the potatoes and cut them in to large pieces and cook them until they were soft.  Yeah, no peeling of potatoes.  After that you just smash the potatoes and add some seasonings and a little olive oil. 

I thought that I would try this recipe tonight so at the store I bought some organic red potatoes that I cooked and put through my ricer.  I added some powdered cheese seasoning, salt, pepper and a little olive oil.  These mashed potatoes were the best I ever tasted.  I don’t think that I would make them any other way and they didn’t take much time to make.  In the past I never made the mashed potatoes for family gathering because they never tasted like my mom’s mashed potatoes which everyone loves.  I realized today that sometimes you just have to create your own version of a recipe and try not to duplicate another person’s recipe.

Triple D ----------- Day 216

Today was another cold day.  I thought I could retire my winter coat but not yet.  When I went outside today, I had flashbacks of running last night in the wind.  I reflected today about the run last night and realized that if I ran 4 miles in the wind, I should be able to run 5 miles next week.

I only have to go to the grocery store tomorrow so I should be able to get my other stuff around the house done.  I really need to get back to my photo project and make a dent in it.  Hopefully I will be feeling well tomorrow and not have the same headache that I had last week.  The one thing I definitely will do tomorrow is run the first thing in the morning to get it out of the way.

As I am writing this post, I turned on the TV and have the Food Network channel on.   The program on right now is Triple D.  The food looks good but it is so fattening – lots of fried food and cheese everywhere.  I guess it is best for me to just look and not eat.  It just isn’t fair that diner type food tastes so good but is not good for you.  It is not a good idea for me to watch a food show when I am hungry.  I better go take a bath to get my mind off of food.

The Windy City ---------- Day 215

When I left work today it seemed really cold outside.  I usually walk to my car after I get off the train but today I opted to take the bus.  I was shocked to see the temperature in my car read 33 degrees.  No wonder I felt cold.  When I got to the athletic wear store that we met to run, I felt the urge to buy some running apparel.  When I looked at the sizes available for the clothing items, I didn’t see any larger sizes but I thought I would take a chance and try on the largest of the small sizes.  Oddly enough, the size fit.  Maybe because it had some stretch fabric incorporated in the garment. I ended up buying a light jacket and a long sleeve top which I immediately wanted to wear for my run.

Our run tonight was 4 miles.  Once we left the store and ventured outside into the cold, it felt like I didn’t have any clothes on.  At times like this, I can’t wait to run so I warm up.  As we were running closer to the lake, the wind was really strong and blowing at us from the front.  They don’t call Chicago the Windy City for nothing.  It took so much more energy to run against the wind.  On the way back at least we were running with the wind which was much easier.  I was able to finish the 4 miles but it was one of the hardest runs that I have had.  If I was not running in a group, I never would have gone out by myself in those weather conditions.

Now that I am home, I am still trying to warm up from my run.  Hopefully, the weather will take a turn for the better and today was the last cold run of the season

Farewell Dinner ---------- Day 214

Tonight we had a farewell dinner at my parent’s house for my sister and her husband who are moving to Arizona.  My mom cooked an authentic German dinner of Rollaten with gravy, Knodel and Spatzle.  She also made some homemade rolls.  And let’s not forget the cheesecake my mom made for dessert. For some reason I was so hungry tonight and proceeded to eat more than I should have eaten.  But it all tasted so good.

When I was in the car driven back home from my parent’s house, my stomach told me that I had definitely eaten too much.  I wasn’t sick or anything like that but I just didn’t feel so well since I ate the type of foods I usually don’t eat.  At least alcohol wasn’t involved in my eating frenzy.  That would have put me over the edge.

Tomorrow night the plan is to run 4 miles with my group.  That should burn off some of the calories consumed this evening.

Do as I say ----------- Day 213

One of my pet peeves is when I ask someone do something for me and they decide to improvise on my instructions.  On Sunday, I told my son to go to the store where I had a $20.00 coupon to use to buy a kitchen clock since ours died.  When he came back, he had two clocks.  He told me that if you bought one clock you got one free so that is what he did.  The only thing was that the other clock was more money so he had to shell out some cash in addition to the coupon.  I liked the other clock so I didn’t mind too much but I really didn’t need two clocks.  Why is it so difficult to do as I say?  I want nothing more and nothing less.

Then there was an incident today where I asked for help in making my oatmeal for the week in my slow cooker.  I thought my instructions were quite clear.  Seriously, how difficult can it be to make oatmeal?  Again, just do as I say and don’t improvise on my instructions.  Needless to say, when I came home today the oatmeal looked like something the cat threw up.  I got to the bottom of why the oatmeal looked like that and I wanted to beat my head against the wall.  There is a saying that you shouldn’t sweat the small stuff.  I agree with that saying but if there is a lot of small stuff that upsets you on a continuous basis, it adds up.

I know I shouldn’t get upset about things that don’t really impact my life (well it does impact my breakfast). In the past, eating a pint of ice cream for dinner would have made me feel better.  These days, I have found that the best way to get over my anger is to get some exercise.  I just got on my treadmill and ran.  After a good sweat, I felt so much better.  I guess all those endorphins from exercising does good things for the body.

A Change in the Season ---------- Day 212

Tonight is my last Opera of the season.  I have had season Opera tickets with my friend Erika for more than 20 years.  We got a notice in the mail that the opera series that we have always gone to has been cancelled and we need to select another series for the 2010/2011 season.  Erika and I were not pleased to have to make this change but what choice did we have.

By having the same seats for all these years, you get to know the people around you.  Since most of us will be in different series, we will never have the same dynamics again.  To celebrate all the time we spend discussing the Operas during intermission throughout the years, one of the ladies in the group is organizing a dinner for all of us before the Opera tonight.  This will give all of us a chance to say farewell to one another.  This just goes to show you that things never stay the same.