B & G Oysters

Have I mentioned I've recently become obsessed with oysters? TKO gets major props here. On our first date we grabbed a drink before our dinner reservation and we got into discussing the lack of oysters in my life. I'm a HUGE fan of seafood -- especially shell fish -- but for some reason had never tried an oyster (raw, that is -- I tried them fried once). I mentioned to him that I was always too embarrassed to just order one at a restaurant and next thing I knew he came back with one little oyster for me! 5 second later I was hooked.

Last night TKO and I went out on a surprise date to a little place in the South End called B & G Oysters. The restaurant was pretty small and about half of it was filled with a big open kitchen. We were sat at a great table that was higher than the kitchen, allowing us to look down into it and watch the chefs cook and the shuckers shuck. It was awesome!

When we sat down we split a bottle of No. 9 Park's Pinot Blanc (nice to support another local restaurant?) and ordered a bunch of oysters! TKO is usually the expert on these but this time I picked almost all of them.

The oysters were a.ma.zing. My favorite was the Thatch Island and the Shiny Sea. So yummy and refreshing!


For my entree I ordered the fried clams which came with fries, pickles, coleslaw and homemade tartar sauce. Everything was delicious and with TKO's help I licked my plate clean. My apologies for the crappy photos.

He ordered the hake which came with some mean tasting brussels sprouts. I'm not the biggest fan of brussels but these babies were great.

We decided to skip dessert and headed across the street to Stephi's on Tremont. It was bigger and nicer than expected and we got two prime seats right in the middle of the bar. The bartender was super friendly and with her help I ordered a pineapple-infused vodka martini. Sooo good! I then tried to order a chocolate type martini but it tasted too much like coffee :( Luckily the bartender noticed and replaced it with some pear/other fruit martini that smelled like bubble gum!

We headed home around 11 and I crashed. I'm so worn out today and struggling through work! At least it's almost 3, but I have lots to doooo. Time to get to it!

Zumba tonight, yay!

New Things & Tuesday Potluck

Half way through the work week yippee!! First things first, I finished reading A Stolen Life on Monday and started my third book of 2012: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. It's hard to describe A Stolen Life as "really great" because it's about such a terrible story. That being said I really admire Jaycee Dugard for telling her story and being so honest and open. Truly a book that makes you think. I'm about a third through The Immortal Life and am already loving it, though I'm surprised the book has so many great reviews. I'd think you need to be a bit of a history/science geek (I am) to thoroughly enjoy this. Maybe it will take a different turn?

This week so far has been a full of new things. For Christmas I got a crock pot and a Wii (equipped with Zumba Fitness/Dance Party) and tried them both out on Monday!Zumba Fitness is HIGHLY recommended. Even though I only did about a 30 minute work out but I already know I'm going to get a lot of use out of it! I recognized most of the songs from my zumba classes and the moves were pretty typical. I can tell this is going to come in handy as the temperature starts creeping down. It may even be the thing that gets me up early to exercise before work...we will see!

The crock pot I received is a 3-quart pot from Target. My parents also gave me a great cookbook to go along with it and that's where my first crock pot experimentation came from! On Monday night I made Chicken Tortilla Soup -- it was a simple recipe and only took 3 hours to cook so I figured it was a good one to try out first. The end product made about 4 servings.
Chicken Tortilla Soup - Serves 4 (adapted from Best Loved Slow Cooker Recipes)

Ingredients:
1 lb of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes
1 4 oz can of mild chopped green chiles
2 garlic cloves, diced
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 can of chicken broth - divided
1 tsp of cumin
s & p to taste

All I did was throw everything into the pot and left it on high for 3 hours. Eventually I removed the chicken, shredded it and then threw it back into the pot. I decided to add in a can of black beans for a bit more staying power. I ate the soup for lunch yesterday and it was DELISH! I topped it with some shredded mexican cheese and dug in:
Last night we hosted a pot luck at my apartment. My friends and I try to do this about once a month and it's a great way to get everyone together. I made my favorite pasta salad:

We also had portabella mushroom pizzas, pretzel bites, avocado and bean salad, cheese and crackers, stuffed peppers and blueberry pound cake muffins.Everything was so awesome and I'm always so impressed with what my friends come up with! Tonight I'm heading out to dinner with TKO to a surprise restauarant weeee!! I love going out to dinner and surprises, so a surprise dinner just makes me go crazy. All this food talk made me hungry for lunch. Adios!

Weekend update!

Hey there! Work has been super stressful this morning so I figured I'd take a little break to do some blogging. Let's see how I did this weekend shall we?

Weekend goals:
1. If eating out, choose something on the healthier side -- I didn't eat out at all this weekend. That's a surprise! I had the option a few times but turned it down, choosing to eat the $100 worth of food stocked in my fridge.
2. Exercise at least once! -- I went for a 3 hour hike on Saturday which definitely counted as exercise. My butt was killllling me the next morning.
3. Spend some time outside if weather permits -- See above :)
4. Go food shopping -- Went food shopping at my beloved Whole Foods on Sunday night. I bought some delicious treats for this week but the ingredients for a great new recipe I'll get to soon enough...
5. Make a new healthy recipe on Sunday for the workweek -- did this on Monday instead!
6. Drink minimally! 1-3 drinks per night if out -- I went out on Saturday night had 4 drinks, not too bad. Even better, I 99.9% avoided the huge plate of calamari and fries put on my table. The .1% is because I ate just one fry. Just one! Fries are my weakness so that's a big deal for me!

This weekend was really great! On Friday night I went to get some frozen yogurt and hung out with TKO. In the morning I made a delish little lunch and we headed to Blue Hills for some hiking. It was an absolutely beautiful day and I'm soo happy I took advantage of it. From the top of Blue Hill you can see Boston in the distance. This picture isn't great but here it is anyway:

On Saturday night I went out with some friends to one of my favorite Brookline bars: Publick House. They have a huge beer list and I love the cozy feel. I tried two new Belgian tripels while there: St. Bernardus and Golden Monkey. I loooved St. Bernardus but Golden Monkey was just ehh. They can't all be winners!

Sunday was a day for relaxing, and apparently for spontaneously booking trips to Iceland!!!! Yes, I'm going to Iceland next month!! I cannot wait and I can't believe I actually booked it! The deal was too good to pass up and I'm hoping to see lots of this:

Northern Lights

and this:

Lobster soup!

Tonight we're hosting a pot luck at my apartment and I'm real excited for it. I'm making pasta salad (tri color pasta with cucumbers, olives, artichokes and peppers covered in Italian dressing). Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures!

Weekend Goals

Happy Friday!!

I like getting back into old habits and this has definitely been a week of just that. First running, then Mexican pizza, then zumba and now setting weekend goals!

Like many people, the weekends are tough for me. Setting goals definitely helps in keeping the eating unhealthy foods/drinking under control. For my first weekend back on track I'm going to make sure I set reasonable expectations for myself:

1. If eating out, choose something on the healthier side
2. Exercise at least once!
3. Spend some time outside if weather permits
4. Go food shopping
5. Make a new healthy recipe on Sunday for the workweek
6. Drink minimally! 1-3 drinks per night if out

I really hope that the weather is nice tomorrow because TKO and I were considering going for a hike. Please please let it be nice!!

Only a few hours until the weekend officially begins yay!

Zumba is back!

Another good day in the books! I went to bed on the later side again last night and woke up feeling a bit sleepy. Work was busy and flew by pretty quickly! For lunch I had tuna salad (aka pickle salad with tuna), lots of raw veggies and popcorn. I ate a peach chobani greek yogurt around 4:00 and for the first time ever wasn't really digging the texture. Weird.

Early in the day I made the goal to exercise 3 times this week. As I mentioned my workout habits have been pretty nonexistant lately and I think 3x a week is a doable goal for me. So while at work I checked out my gym's group fitness schedule and decided I was going to zumba tonight!

I got home and made a quick but yummy dinner -- a cheese omelette made with 2 eggs and an egg white, an apple, and a piece of toast with peanut butter.


After dinner it was tough, but I went to zumba! The class was SO fun and I was thrilled to be back. It's nights like these that really reignite my spirit to workout. I can't wait for next week. Weee!

When I got home I was hungry so I put a frozen banana in the food processor with some peanut butter to make some banana "soft serve". I don't think I left the banana in the freezer long enough because it was a little watery. The texture was more like baby food than ice cream. Eek. Oh well! I topped it with some extra peanut butter and chocolate covered sunflower seeds and ate it anyway :)
Now I'm watching Project Runway all-stars before heading to bed. Surprinsingly I don't recognize all of their contestants and Heidi/Tim/Michael etc. have been replaced. Boo. I'll keep watching anyway. Good night!

P.S. -- although I pretty much neglect the "love" part of this blog, I have a feeling my new squeeze might come up some times. Yes, I said new squeeze! We'll refer to him as TKO for now :)

One down, 25 to go

Today was a pretty good day! I finished my first book of 2012 woo woo! I read Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin. For a book I bought on Amazon for $2.99, this was pretty good! I've been reading a lot of page turners lately and this wasn't quiiiite that, but it definitely had its moments. Overall it was a quick, interesting, unique read. Next up is A Stolen Life by Jaycee Lee Dugard. One down, 25 books to go for the year! I can't decide if this is too daunting of a task or not. 25 books doesn't seem like that much, but that equals out to a book every 2 weeks. I think I'll use this month as a gauge and see what happens.

Despite going to bed way too late two days in a row I woke up today feeling pretty refreshed. Work was super busy which always makes the day fly by. I did experience some weird bouts of nausea throughout the day though -- I'm hoping it's just a strange passing thing and I'm not actually getting sick. Hopefully it wasn't from something I ate today...

Speaking of what I ate today, for breakfast I had a chewy chocolate chip granola bar and a banana. For lunch, a turkey and tomato sandwich on whole wheat bread, a huge bag of raw veggies (celery, string beans and carrots) and some white cheddar poopcorn. This was the same exact thing I ate for lunch on Tuesday so I can't imagine that's was was making me feel sick. We shall see I suppose.

For dinner I brought back one of my favorite staples...Mexican pizza! This time I changed it up a bit and swapped out the refried beans for Smart Ground veggie protein crumbles. Cook this up with some taco seasoning and you're set! You can definitely taste the difference between ground beef and the veggie crumbles but I personally don't mind it. You don't get too much of that, how do I describe this -- nature taste -- that you get with some soy based products. Certainly a good substitute for me!I layered the veggie crumbles on a flaxseed tortilla with mexican blend cheese, salsa, tomatoes, avocado and hot sauce, heated it up in the oven and went to town! Served with a side of cucumbers.
Yum. I'm happy Mexican pizzas are back in my life :)

Off to do some relaxing under the covers. It's freeeezing here in Boston!

And I say the same thing every single time...

You da you da best, you da best I ever had.

No, this was not just an excuse to bring up one of my favorite 2009 jams. This title has a real purpose!

Every single time I get "back on the wagon" I truly believe that I will remember this feeling forever, and therefore never totally fall off the wagon again. Well it's happened people. The memory of building up my running a year and a half ago is still just as fresh in my mind as it was that first day I couldn't run half a mile. I fully remember the pain, the embarrassment, the hugging and puffing through every second. And yet, here I am, back in the same spot again.

I alluded to my current state of couch potato-ness a bit in the last post but didn't even touch the surface on just how ridiculous it's gotten. Over the summer I went through a couple of hard workout stages. I'd take classes at the gym every day for 2 weeks, take a week off, and so on and so on. My weight was VERY slowly creeping up. I noticed it, but just didn't seem to care. I was having a fun summer and wanted to drink, eat, and lay around all weekend, so that's just what I did.

By the time I moved in September I was down to working out about once/twice a week. I joined a gym in my new neighborhood but just never fell in love with it the way I did with my old gym at school. It is further away, smaller, the classes aren't great, etc. etc. I ran a few times when I first moved but that didn't last long at all. September and October went by and I was working out some weeks every day, and others none at all. By this point my eating was totally out of control -- and not out of control "in context", which I had mentioned in other posts, 100% totally and completely out of control. And you know what? I didn't care.

As the holidays crept closer and the temperatures crept downwards, it became harder and harder to get myself to the gym. I believe I worked out only once or twice between the middle of November until yesterday. For me that's pretty alarming. Even more alarming was that while I was at home for Christmas I went to the doctor and felt afraid/embarrassed to get on the scale, knowing it wold be much higher than the last time I was there. And even worse, I experienced a fear I had never felt before: when the doctor took my blood pressure I was completely frightened that she would give me bad news. This was a total eye opener for me and has really re-lit a bit of fire under my butt. The last two days I've been back to eating more cleanly and went for my first run in far too long on Monday. I could only run 1 mile before I almost passed out, but you gotta start somewhere right?

It's important for me to admit these things even in this semi-private place. This blog has been a really wonderful tool for me to look back and see where I've struggled and where I've accomplished. It's truly a motivator and I hope I can get back to the girl I was when I wrote my half marathon post back in March -- a person whose excitement and passion for fitness and healthy food just can't be contained.

Here's to momentum, progress and consistency!