Flipped, Turned Upside Down

Well, hello there!  Where have YOU been?  Haha…just kidding!  Where the heck have I been??

Here’s the scoop:  My life has been turned upside down over the past couple of weeks.  I’ve been busy figuring, planning, thinking, everything!

The reason for all of this?  I am leaving my job!!  So scary, yet so liberating!  And…I will FINALLY be moving back to my hometown of Portland!  I cannot be more happy about that!  But, this is obviously going to be a huge lifestyle change for me.  I will be hitting the pavement in Portland trying to find a new job, I will be living WITH MY MOM, I will be definitely eating on a budget…and lots of other things that go hand and hand with being unemployed.

BUT — I will also be able to really get into cooking in my spare time.  And trying new workouts and finding the time for them!  Is it wrong to admit that I’m looking forward to the month of October since I will still be in Chicago, but no longer working and will be able to sleep in every day?  Haha…I love my sleep!

The most awesome thing about this is that I’ve been saving up for this for a long time and I have amazing support from my family and friends so I don’t feel at all stressed out about my decision.  I actually feel excited!  I really am so truly happy to be returning home.

The time line will be to move in early November.  Because of my trip to Peru (leaving in less than 10 days!!) moving before the end of this month would have been impossible.  Which is fine because I paid last month’s rent when I moved in so October is basically on the house   I will stay here through October then crash with friends for the first couple of days of November with friends before flying to Buffalo for the trip I had planned to go there.  Once I get back from that, I will be on the drive across the country.  If you’ve ever driven across the midwest, it ain’t pretty.  Most boring drive ever!  Oh well – it must be done!

After that, it will be all about the job search and trying not to spend all the money I’ve saved!  And I will be able to blog and keep up with all of your blogs so much more easily.  That will be awesome!  So, if you will bare with me during this transition of crazy, I will appreciate it!!!

P.S. I’m scared to death to look at my Reader right now!  I haven’t checked it in like a week…yikes!

Do Overs?

Hello!!!  I’ve miiiissssed you!

I’ve spent the past week-ish in Portland, Oregon visiting my mom and doing absolutely nothing except what I wanted to.  It was glorious!

It wasn’t all fun and games though.  My mom and I bought a condo together as an investment about 5 years ago…yeah, that was a great idea   Haha…actually, we had great renters in there since we bought it.  They moved out a couple of weeks ago and we already have another renter set to move in on the first so my mom put me to work while I was home!  I guess since I’m half owner, I was just doing my duty!

One of my jobs was to paint the deck.  I finished it, I promise!

This is the view off of the deck…I love Chicago, but this sure did make me miss home!

Thanks to some suggestions from Mama Pea, we checked out Laughing Planet my first day in town.  They are all about being responsible to the earth, animals and each other.  Loved it!

I had a delicious veggie quesadilla.  The only bad thing I can say is that I had them add tofu in and it just didn’t quite fit.  My bad!

My mom had this amazing salad!  It had a curry peanut sauce on it!  Yummers!

I convinced my mom to split this peanut butter chocolate chip bar.  Delish!  Seriously!

Since we were spending a lot of time fixing and painting things at the condo while I was there, most of my eats were on the run.  Lots of starbucks, sammiches and the usual suspects for breakfast:

Whole wheat toast with PB, nanner and cinnamon

Some Fiber One honey clusters with yet another nanner!

The highlight of the trip (besides an amazing dinner with friends on my last night that I totally forgot to photograph!) was our hike in the Columbia River Gorge.  We were short on time and needed a quick easy hike so we picked Horsetail Falls.

The falls was more than .8 miles   That was just until you got to the trail that would take you there!

This was good practice for me since in just 3 weeks I will be heading to Peru to hike the Inca Trail!

First, after a mile or so, we came across Oneonta Gorge

Then a mile after that, Ponytail Falls!  This was cool because if you look behind it, you’ll see that the trail goes under

Here we are behind the falls!

One of the best things about Portland is that it has all the bells and whistles of a bustling city, but all of this is less than an hour away!

We ended up turning around at Ponytail Falls and skipping Horsetail Falls.  The hike was just about 4 miles and so perfect!

Alas, I’m now back to real life

It is always nice to go home for a visit.  I love that I can just fall right back into step like I haven’t been gone for nine years.  Also love that I talked at length with my mom about some big life decisions I’ve been struggling with and I think we put a pretty good plan in place…more on that…someday   One day at a time!

So — do overs…can I have them?  I think it was a bad idea to start my FitBook right before my trip.  Even though I didn’t get off track while I was home, I also couldn’t be as on track as I wanted to be.  Yes, I know, that is life…but cut me a little slack   So, the FitBook will be starting over on Monday and I plan to skip it for the 2 weeks surrounding my trip to Peru.  I also might have to start my challenges over…oh my gosh, I’m such a slacker!  Gah!  Moving on…

I have a funny post lined up for you guys tomorrow having to do with some of the stuff from my past that I found at my mom’s…it’s always fun to rummage around!  Finished two books on the trip that I will also give my 2 cents on.  I hope you all have a lovely evening and I will see you tomorrow!

Hello from MDW!

Hello!  From the lovely airport terminal!

I actually made it through fairly painlessly and have time to say hi…so hi!

My last hour at work was crazy hectic!  I’m glad I made it out alive

It took about 3 tries to get my out of office voicemail right, it’s like I get nervous or something.  I stutter.  I say the wrong words.  I get the date wrong on my return…okay, maybe the last one is on purpose!

Lunch was a disaster.  I ran across the street to grab a caesar salad.  Harmless enough.  I watched the lady throw in two massive scoops of parmesan cheese.  I made a mental note to not each all the cheese.  Then she laddles on some dressing, says “is one scoop okay?”…I say yes…and she then puts on a whole second laddle of it!  Gah!!

I know, it looks harmless enough.  But take my word for it, there was a pool of drowning cheese at the bottom of this bowl when I finished!

I’m now sitting here in this ridiculously crowded terminal snacking on this…

I can’t resist chocolate right now.  I just can’t.  In all honesty though, they taste pretty nasty.

I finished The White Queen and was lucky enough to find the follow up, The Red Queen, at the library on Monday.  I’m about to go crack it open right now!

That’s all I have for you for the moment!  I hope you are all having a lovely day and I will see you all tomorrow!

It’s a pity party!

Hola!  How are ya?

I had a pity party this morning.  For myself.  In my head.  During my commute.

It wasn’t a great moring…I was very crampy, slightly grumpy from getting up WAY early to finish (okay, START!) packing, starving because I somehow though coffee would hold me over until I got to work and squished in my bus seat because I was trying to be a polite commuter and only take up one seat despite the fact that I had an oversized backpack containing all kinds of crap for the plane including an oversized laptop, a purse stuffed full of stuff also for the plane and a large suitcase because I plan to do some sales tax free shopping while home.  Whew!  That was a long sentence!

So, I sat on the bus with my belly grumbling and felt very sorry for myself

Then a guy got on the bus and sat down across from me, putting his man purse on the seat next to him and spreading himself out to read the paper.  He was holding the paper up really high so that it would look like he wasn’t noticing that the bus was filling up and he was hogging up an extra seat with his man purse.  I, however, saw him peek out several times and still NOT move his stuff.  So, I pulled out my camera and started to take a picture of him.  When he asked what I was doing, I told him I was taking a pic to post on Facebook of the douche hogging up an extra seat on the bus while I managed to only take up one seat…

Okay, that last part didn’t happen.  But I thought about doing it while glaring down his newspaper.

Yesterday, I tried out a quick and easy recipe I saw awhile back on Averie’s blog.  Mashed up a nanner, oats, cinnamon and some blueberries.  Microwaved and wha-la!  Breakfast!

Pretty tasty!  I think next time I might play around with it a little, as the oats were a little too heavy and still slightly raw tasting.  Maybe cut out some of the oats for flour to lighten it up.  We’ll see!

Then I gave in to a craving…

That’s right, not one, but TWO pieces of chocolate.  And they were glorious!

Some snackage in the afternoon…

Roma tomato and fresh mozzarella!  YUMMERS!

A sort of repeat of this for dinner:

Caprese scramble!  Roma, mozzarella and 1 egg & 2 egg whites.  In my defense, I’m trying to eat up anything left in the fridge that’s going to spoil before I get back.  This was delicious though!

I made one crucial mistake, in that I had scheduled a hair appointment last night, the night before I leave.  What was I thinking?!  All that did was get me home later than usual with a ridiculously long list of things needing to be done!

After lots of dishes and laundry and Boo Boo stuff, I crashed.  And then got up early this morning to commence with more laundry, packing and more Boo Boo stuff.  Which then led to aforementioned pity party.

When I finally got to work, I ran to the closest place I could think of (Starbucks in the lobby of the building) and ordered this…

Multigrain Bagel with cream cheese.  Oops, forgot to ask for light.  But, I only used half!  HIT.THE.SPOT!

I will probably hit you guys up later from the airport…if I get there early, which usually never happens.  But I’m going to try!  I’m usually that person that cuts it way closer than I realize and then I have an anxiety attack while stuck in the security line watching the minutes tick by.

One time I SERIOUSLY underestimated the time to get through baggage check and the security line and ended up having to cut in front of the entire security line, apologizing profusely, only to finally make it through and find my flight delayed.  I felt like a total jerk when I saw some people I cut in front of while I was patiently waiting in a line at the food court.  I just know they think I was trying to dupe them!

Anywho, I shall see you all later!  Possibly from the west coast!  Hoozah!

WF 1, Nicole 0

Hello there?!  Long time, no see!  I’ve missed you!

Where to start?!  Lots of boring stuff occurred over the weekend.  Had errands and cleaning to get done before I head out of town this week.

Let’s start with the beautiful view I caught while waiting for friends outside the Adler Planetarium Thursday night…

Gorgeous day, right?

The Adler After Dark event was Eh.  Way over priced drinks, hardly any food selection and no special exhibits.  The DJ was rockin’ though!  And we also got to go outside once the sun set and look at Saturn though a telescope.  That part was crazy cool!  You could see the rings and everything!  I was muy impressed…

We did manage to squeeze in a show about the stars…

The guy told us we couldn’t take pics after the lights went out, so that is the best you get, folks!

Okay, onto some eats from the past few days!

Thai take out for lunch – Fried Tofu.  It came with some spicy sauce instead of the peanut sauce and I was a little disappointed   This also just reminded me that half of this lunch is still in the fridge at work.  Oops.  I guess that will be trashed tomorrow…if I remember.

My Pina Colada protein shake with maca and chia seeds in it, blended with almond milk.  And two deliciously juicy plums.

I tried to roast up some butternut squash I bought…

Meh.  I’m not sure I’m a fan.

Because I’m in the process of trying to use up all my food before I head out on Wednesday, I had a bunch of stuff to bring to work for eats today.

A bizarre concoction of lentils with pasta sauce hidden by the butternut squash, sugar snap peas, an apple and a batch of blueberry bars that went horribly wrong!  My glass baking dish was dirty so rather than just wash it, I was lazy and lined a tin dish with foil.  Um, never do that.  I baked these 10 minutes longer than normal and they still weren’t all the way done.  At this point, it is like blueberry crisp.  All I need is a little bit of ice cream…

In lieu of giving in to a chocolate craving this afternoon, I tackled this…

I swear, the cinnamon makes all the difference!

Finally, as my workout today, I was going to walk to the Whole Foods on the other side of the river and then walk to the library and then walk home.  Well, while at the WF, I caved.  I got hot bar!  I knew I was gonna get home late and it just seemed like a good plan.

A veggie & bean medley, a zucc stuffed with bulgar, fajita veggies, potatoes buried under there somewhere and 6 pieces of mac ‘n’ cheese of good measure

The Cardio Trainer app on my phone said my walk home tonight was 5.5 miles completed in 1:25.  Not bad!  I’ll take it!

I also started Week 2 of all my challenges, with the exception of the sit ups.  I got a nasty rug burn on my tail bone (it must by the kind of pants I was wearing?) and I didn’t want to risk making it worse.  Totally weird, I know.

Today was also the first day using my FitBook.  I’m really excited about it.  And it’s really good to see what food groups I’m missing.  Today I was WAY short on whole grains.  No good-o!  It is also good for reminding me to take my vitamins and to not mindlessly eat something.

Well, this little lady is patiently waiting for some treats, so I better jet!

See you on the flip side!!

Stalker…

Hello, hello!  How are ya??

This morning I became aware that I might have a stalker.

A girl.

With a twitch.  Her nose.

Huge ears.

I even caught her red (okay, white) handed!

She moves fast

You see, I was eating breakfast and there was some banana involved.  Banana is her FAVORITE!!  It is a rare treat for her since it does not go over well with her sensitive digestive system.  She was lucky enough to get a small piece and then was determined to get more!  She did this one other time a few months ago and before I knew what was happening she had her two front paws IN the bowl of cereal!  No good-o.

I tried to take more pics so you could truly see how she was stalking me, but she is just too fast!

Kashi Cinnamon Harvest, the infamous nanner, goji berries and almond milk.  I sprinkled (ground) on some of the new TJs sugar blend and unfortunately, I think the cinnamon in the cereal took over the bowl cuz I couldn’t really taste it.  Boo.

I was so excited to have a package arrive today with this stuff in it:

A Fitbook!  I stumbled across this last week online when looking for a different food journal.  After doing a little research, it turns out that I’m just a little behind in the game, but I’m really excited about it.  I’m at my best when I have structure.  My plan is to start next week and the next 12 weeks will be documented in my Fitbook.  Don’t worry, I won’t be posting it daily, but I will do check ins

The other thing I got was from Juice Organics.  It’s an exfoliating scrub and moisturizer.  I love playing with skin care products!  My stand-by of Oil of Olay is always on hand, but I like to get little samples like this and see how they feel!  I’ll keep ya posted!

At work today, I found out something interesting about myself.  See, I cut my thumb the other night and had a band aid on it…

That is the carpet at work, NOT mine

As usual, I had a hard boiled egg to peel.  I never noticed it before, but I hold the egg with my right hand and use my left thumb to get the shell off.  Well, the thumb was not exactly in working order so I had to do it with the other hand.  I cannot even begin to tell you how hard it was to do it with my right hand.  And I am right handed!  It was very weird!

And it still peeled horribly

Don’t worry, I’m going to have a hard boiled egg cook off this weekend with a few recipes that you guys have recommended!

Those plums from Trader Joe’s are the sweetest, juiciest, best plums I’ve ever had.  For real.

I haven’t had much of an appetite the past few days so when I got home, I totally shelved the plan to make this delish looking dish from Eating Bird Food and decided to go much more simple…

Half of a pretzel roll, some organic pasta sauce and fresh mozzarella.  Mama Mia!!!  This is probably the most satisfying thing I’ve eaten all week.  Is that wrong?    I’m kicking myself for eating the other half of the roll beforehand…and it was the last one.

On the fitness front:

1) The Groupon today was for 10 Zumba, Cardio Kickboxing and Cardio Dance classes for $29!  Hello!  Done and done!

2) I finished the first week of my challenges.  I’m an Excel junkie so I made my own little tracking sheet

The first 4 sets of each exercise have a particular number of reps required and then for the last set you max out, but you have to do at least the minimum they specify.  Making a little progress…bring on Week 2!

3)  Over at the Sisterhood, they are having a virtual race!  There are several distances to choose from AND there is a race shirt, medal and goodie bag!  How awesome is that?!  I’m so signing up for the 10k!  Anyone want to race???

I think that’s it for me, folks!  Tomorrow is Adler After Dark, but hopefully I’ll be able to post if I don’t get home too late…or have too many drinks

Have a lovely night!

I forgot a title

****I had to edit this because I forgot a title   It’s that kind of day, folks!****

Good morning, peeps!   How’s the day so far?

Mine started like this…

Oh yeah, baby!  Please excuse the mess on the side of the plate.  When I first started making it, I forgot that it should be in a bowl and had to slide everything over.  It was the standard: oats, protein powder, maca, cinnamon, PB, goji berries, flax and 1/2 a nanner.  Delish!

Last night, I made Mama Pea’s Peanut Sauce Noodles for the SECOND time…cuz it’s just that good!  There was no bok choy in the house, but an abundance of zucchini (as usual) and a green pepper that was on it’s last leg so those got substituted in!

So fresh and so clean, clean!

Rice noodles went into the pot of boiling water

Wow…dirty stove!  I shouldn’t be allowed near anything white, I tell ya!

Veggies went into the pan…this is where cooking starts to stress me out.  The timing and watching of more than one thing at a time.  PLUS, I had the peanut sauce stuff out and waiting to be blended up!

I put the cooked noodles over the cooked veggies and then added the sauce.  I had to blend the sauce in my Magic Bullet-esque smoothie maker since after last week’s incident, I got mad and threw the blender away   I know, wasteful.  And spiteful.  Now you know…and knowing is half the battle.  G.I. Jooooooe!  Wow, that was embarrassing.  Moving on…

My lovely dinner

Fantastico!

Oh, except, are you supposed to shake up the can of coconut milk first?  Because I didn’t.  And it tasted like I got the fattest part of the coconut milk in there.  Oops

For years I’ve been saying that I’m going to start an herb garden on my window sill.  And for years, I haven’t   This time, I’m doing it!  I’m going to try to get the goods this weekend.  The only issue, is which herbs to get!  Suggestions??  Do you have an herb garden?  Any tips??

Some Food for Thought:

So, on a completely different note, while I was readying silly celeb gossip on the internet yesterday, I saw this quote from Jessica Alba about losing the baby weight:

So what’s next for the new mom? She wants to lose the baby weight — even if that means “starving [herself]!”

“I have a hard time with portion control, so I have 1,200 calorie meals delivered,” she told Lucky’s September issue. “But I also work out, so basically I’m starving. It sucks. I drink a lot of water.”

• Source

What do you think about that comment?  At first I felt really surprised by that comment, that she was so okay with promoting what for most women would be an unhealthy amount of calories while trying to be active.  Then, I sort of thought about how brainwashed everyone is about being thin…including the celebrities themselves.  Part of her job requires her to look a certain way and unfortunately, she has to go to unhealthy lengths to achieve that look and has become so used to it that she doesn’t think twice.  Sad, really.

Anyway — enjoy the rest of your lovely day and I will see you on the flip side.  Or maybe later