Ten Random Thoughts

1. I'm reading "The Signature of All Things" by Elizabeth Gilbert and I can't wait for it to be over. I started this book on January 14 and am only just over halfway through. As you all know with my book-reading goals this is a long time for me to be stuck on one book. GAHHHH!

2. Last week at work we had a "two truths and a lie" icebreaker. Mine were:
- I was a 5-year varsity soccer player
- Pickles are my favorite food
- I have a tattoo on my back

Everyone picked the pickles one as the lie! Now I'm the subject of a lot of pickle jokes.

3. I love snow days!

4. I finished season 1 of House of Cards this morning. Hoooooly shit!! I love and hate Frank Underwood. Hate is winning at the moment.

5. I still haven't decided what I want to make for the potluck tonight.

6. Last night we got first place at trivia again against 25 teams!!! I had to do the tiebreaker at the end and am now 3 for 3! The tiebreakers are basically back and forth "categories" (like in the game Kings). Our category was European countries and I stumped the guy with Croatia. Thank goodness for Sporcle!

7. My run last night was terrible. It is absolutely crazy what a few days off of working out does to my body. I felt like my legs weighed 10,000 pounds each and I was cramping up like woah. It will get easier in a day or two, but it really is nuts!

8. Billy Joel is playing at Fenway this summer. I feel really excited but also a little wary. What will it be like to see him in Boston? How can he really sing New York State of Mind in Fenway Park?!? Will people boo him??

9. I watched the Biggest Loser triathlon and it made me want to do one! Perhaps it's time to take some swimming lessons? PS - anyone else think that triathlon was unfair and dumb? Obviously Rachel was going to win it. I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.

10. In my timehop today there is a tweet I wrote asking: "Does anyone know about the new 'Fromage' sign in Southie on W Broadway?" This place is still not open and still has the same weird red paper over it. What the F?!?! I'm convinced it's a Breaking Bad-esque meth lab in disguise.

1 Week To Go

First things first, Northeastern beat Harvard 6-0 last night! Woooo! Go NU! And now back to business...

I have just under a week to meet my next DietBet goal (another 3%). The first two weeks of the month I stayed on track. I slacked a few times but overall did great and stayed consistent. I exercised a ton and I met my goal 50% of the way.

But the third week. Ugh. This was a tough one. I had my national staff meeting at work which meant all meals were catered. I did my best to eat at a normal level but it's so difficult! How many times can you say "no thanks" to the plate of cookies and brownies going around? Also, I don't understand why I'm completely satisfied by my portioned out, protein and veggie heavy packed lunches, but feel hungry after eating half a sandwich and pasta salad. It makes no sense.

In addition to the catered breakfasts and lunches, I went out for dinner and drinks 3 nights in a row. The first was with work -- I didn't drink any alcohol and tried each of the appetizers passed around. I definitely didn't go overboard but it's a lot different than eating grilled chicken and spinach for dinner. The second night was a yelp event, and although I had planned to do otherwise, I ended up eating a lot of appetizers and having a few drinks. The third night was Tom's company party and I basically threw all attempts at staying semi-healthy out the window. I ate a lot of appetizers, and took full advantage of the open bar. And by full advantage I mean it was necessary to eat two slices of pizza at 1 AM to try to prevent sickness on the long drive from Harvard Square to Southie. At least I remembered to take a picture...literal LOL.

The next day I felt terrible and ate a combination of chips, cheese, and Chinese food through out the day. Bad news bear.

On Sunday I decided to clean it up. I ate a great breakfast and lunch, meal planned, went food shopping and prepped for the week, then prepared myself mentally for the superbowl gathering I was going to. I decided I just wasn't going to eat anything at the party. Luckily it was downstairs from my apartment, so I made dinner and brought it with me like a weirdo. It worked! I ended up trying one of Tom's homemade chicken wings and eating a tiny bacon wrapped bread thing, but that was it. It was tough, but let's be serious, life goes on!

I'm feeling anxious about the DietBet because I don't think I'm going to reach my goal. I'm not about to spend this week starving myself just so I can make $8. I'm 100% committed to being back on my plan this week, but it seems silly to go totally crazy and restrictive just to reach an online bet I made. I think I'll be okay with whatever the outcome. I can only do what I can, right?

Here's my plan for staying on track this week:
- Monday: homemade breakfast and lunch, had planned to bring food into the beanpot but ran out of time, I just waited it out and had sushi for dinner when I got home.
- Tuesday: homemade breakfast and lunch, gym straight from work (speed intervals on treadmill), homemade dinner before trivia (if I run out of time, I have 3 or 4 healthy options at trivia I can order)
- Wednesday: gym in the morning (strength), homemade breakfast and lunch, Potluck dinner with friends. I've been brainstorming some healthy items to bring. A few things I'm thinking of bringing: Strawberry cheesecake bites, crockpot pulled pork (and bringing little rolls for whoever wants), Mediterranean fava bean salad, crockpot Italian turkey meatballs.
- Thursday: homemade breakfast and lunch, gym after work (cardio dance, probably), homemade dinner
- Friday: homemade breakfast and lunch, gym after work (strength + cross), homemade dinner

That's the dealio. I'll let ya'll know how it goes when I weigh in on the 10th-11th.

What's in my pantry?

This post should really be called "what's in my cabinet?" because I don't have a pantry per se. I live in a very large apartment but our kitchen doesn't have much built in storage space, so me and my two roommates really only have about a shelf an a half each for food storage. The rest of the space is for things we all use (spices, etc.).

Over the past 5 or 6 years I've totally changed the way I snack. I used to keep pretzels, chips, goldfish, 100 calorie packs, granola bars, etc. all within reach. Something I picked up from my family? These days I keep very little "extras" in the house -- if I want a snack, my options are pretty limited. 

So what's in my 1 1/2 cabinets?

This looked way more organized yesterday!

Top shelf:
Everything on the left hand side belongs to my roommate. So on the top shelf I have:

- A few cans of tuna
- A few cans of soup (I try not to eat this that often, but I let myself "splurge" on Chickarina soup every other week or so).
- A can of beef broth (I'll be using this week for crock pot pulled pork!)
- Sunflower seeds
- A big tub of mayonnaise. I bought this for a potluck party recipe a few weeks ago but didn't use it. It will likely sit on my shelf until it goes bad because I never use mayo.

And on the bottom shelf:
- Flax seeds (I put these in my oatmeal and homemade larabars)
- Lentils
- More baby cans of tuna fish
- Olive oil cooking spray
- A box of whole wheat spaghetti
- A few half used boxes of cous cous and quinoa
- Dried apricots
- Dates
- Craisins
- Dark chocolate chips
- Mixed nuts and peanuts
- I try to always keep a few little bags of oatmeal mixes and trail mix ready to grab!

The only thing that's not in there is my peanut butter and honey, both of which I keep at work. I usually have some version of Peanut Butter & Co's PB at home, and keep a jar at work for oatmeal. The honey below was actually made (made? harvested?) by Tom's brother and sister in law! They keep bees in their backyard and this honey is awesome. I'm sad it's almost gone!

Hope you all have a fabulous Monday! I'm heading to the beanpot tonight to cheer on NU. Go Huskies!

Kitchen Kibitz at Shojo

On Sunday night I went to my second Kitchen Kibitz popup at Shojo! I've been wanting to go to Shojo for a while now, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I've already talked about what Kitchen Kibitz is, so I'll get right to the good stuff.

I went to this event alone and was a bit nervous. People tend to go to these dinners in couples or groups and I'm quite introverted when it comes to meeting new people. When I got there I randomly chose a spot at a big table and spent the first 5 minutes trying not to be awkward and mostly looking at my phone. Eventually conversation spread across the table and I ended up having a fabulous night! I was sitting with 8 others and had a great time talking about Iron Chef, restaurants in Boston, nonprofits, traveling, etc. etc. It just turned out really great!

Sunday's popup focused on fusing traditional Jewish cuisine with traditional Chinese cuisine in a fun, modern way. As the Chinese New Year is coming up (Friday), each place setting had fun trinkets to celebrate, including various red envelopes filled with gelt (Hanukkah candy coins, instead of real money per usual Chinese tradition). My red envelope meant "good fortune for the new year." I'll take it!!

As soon as we sat down we were poured cold tea -- oolong tea infused vodka, peach de vinge and lemon. This was so delicious and I helped myself to a few cups throughout the night!

The first food of the night was black & white challah bread (black from using squid ink!) served with a miso honey butter. Apparently is was guest chef Mark O'Leary's first time making challah bread, but you could never tell. It tasted like it came right out of the oven of a bakery on Long Island!

Next up were the appetizers: matzoball ramen and a pastrami rye bao.

[apologies for crappy photos]

One of my favorite parts of the evening was that many of the guests I was sitting with were excited to share with me stories of growing up in a Jewish home/family. When the soup came out, the guy sitting across from me explained the "battle of matzoballs" and how he was a "sinker" lover at heart and wouldn't go near a "floater". He was thrilled that the matzoballs in our soup were "sinkers" -- made with schmaltz (rendered chicken fat), fluffy on the outside but dense inside so they sink to the bottom of the bowl.

The pastrami rye bao was one of the more hilarious mash-ups for me. The perfectly steamed Chinese bun was made with rye flour and filled with thin sliced pastrami and kimchi instead of your standard Jewish deli cole slaw. So creative.

The rest of the meal was served family style. Three HUGE entree trays were passed around the table:

Luobagao latke with green tea creme fraiche and smoked salmon. This dish was so delicious -- the latke was very soft and made from parsnip. The smoked salmon and little chip on top paired surprisingly perfectly with the cakey latke and the green tea creme fraiche.

Good harvest stir fry flanken. I could have eaten this whole tray! Flanken is a cut of meat taken from the short ribs of beef. Apparently it's a big cut of meat eaten on Jewish holidays. Who knew? The flanken was served with thin noodles and veggies -- a fun play on a noodle and beef dish!

Chinese 5 spice kugel with dried longan. Again, I loved how heated the diners at my table got when arguing over what the "right" kugel is. As a first time eater of kugel, everyone was fighting to tell me what kind of kugel their mom makes (which of course, is the *right* kind of kugel). It was too cute. The kugel was probably the strangest thing I ate all night, but also the best! Kugel is a mashed up egg noodle pie, and Shojo added an Asian twist by seasoning it with Chinese 5 Spice and topping it with crispy fried wantons.

For dessert, we first cleansed our pallets with a tangerine honey shaved snow. Then we were treated to mochi, coated in a Manischewitz syrup and covered in black sesame seeds. Everyone at the table was hesitant to try this (apparently most people think Manishewitz is gross) but it was actually really delicious! Personally, I loved it.

Overall it was a great night! I'm so glad I decided to go despite having no one to go with. Nights like these are good reminders to push myself out of my comfort zone!

Saturday Circuit

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

This morning I attempted to make "2 ingredient pancakes" for me and Tom. They are all over the blogosphere and seemed pretty easy, but unfortunately it was a major fail. The pancakes are just a mixture of eggs and mashed banana (I also added a little vanilla extract and cinnamon) but the texture was all off and they got really stuck to the pan I used. Womp womp.

Yesterday I hit up the gym for some strength work. I made up this total body circuit workout beforehand to do:

Warmup:
5 minutes jumprope
100 jumping jacks

Complete each circuit 2x

Circuit 1:
15 bicep curls to shoulder press
15 tricep kickbacks
15 lunges with dumbbells (each leg)

Circuit 2:
15 tricep dips
15 pushups
15 glute kick backs (each side)

Circuit 3:
15 side lateral shoulder raises with twist
15 bent over rows
15 squats with dumbbells on shoulders

Circuit 4:
60 sec. wall sit with front shoulder flutters
30 calf raises with dumbbells
15 back flys

Circuit 5:
30 sec. plank
30 sec. superman
15 bicycles (each side)
15 russian twists with dumbbell (each side)
15 V-ups

The whole workout including warmup and stretching took about 50 minutes. Those lateral raises with a twist kill me!!!

Catch ya later.

365 Days Clean

Today I celebrate one year of being diet coke free! How the heck did that happen???

Let's share a diet coke to celebrate! Or perhaps a diet coke shaped cake?

[Source]

Quick recap: 

After several failed "diet coke challenges" I didn't so much decide, but really just stopped drinking diet coke without any grand announcements. It didn't start off as a plan to stop drinking DC altogether, but it somehow happened. Now I'm 365 days clean!

Cravings:
Yes. I still crave diet coke whenever I see someone else drinking it, but only if it's a fountain soda and I can actually SEE it. I don't care if people drink from cans. Otherwise, I have probably only craved DC without seeing it a few times in the last 6 months or so, or if I've been really hungover (although that happens rarely these days).

Feelings:
For the most part nothing really feels different, or at least what does feel different can't be associated with no longer drinking DC. In the past year I've made a lot of changes exercise and eating wise, so I imagine the changes in my energy levels and overall health are more related to those things. What quitting diet coke has done though is change my attitude. Ready for an overdoes on cheesiness? Quitting diet coke has made me feel like I can do anything! Seriously!! Anytime I'm faced with a challenge (usually related to my constant health-related struggles) I think to myself "If I can not drink diet coke for X days, I can do X and X." For the most part, it works!

Other Drinks:
I've started having some other drinks, but for the most part, it's water straight up. Some other drinks I stick to:
- Seltzer - I love ordering seltzer with a splash of cranberry at bars or at trivia)
- Naturally flavored water - cucumber + mint + lemon is my fave
- Diet Peach Snapple - I try not to drink this TOO often as it contains a lot of the chemicals that exist in diet coke, but I haven't been able to write it off completely...yet!
- Green juice from the cafe downstairs at work - my favorite is kale + broccoli + spinach + apple...no clue how this tastes so good
- Regular soda - in the first few months without diet coke I drank regular soda (ginger ale or sprite usually) about once a week or every other week. A few times at work when I needed a severe pick-me-up I'd grab a can of regular coke. Besides as a mixer with alcohol or feeling overly nauseous (ginger ale), I don't think I've had regular soda in months!

Cheers to another clean year! ::clinks glass of cucumber water::

Friday Five

I had my annual review at work today and it went great. I'm feeling relieved, so why not celebrate with some fun Friday Fives!

5 Recipes I Want to Try:
1. Minestrone soup with quinoa & kale
2. Cinnamon french toast bake
3. Beef & broccoli
4. Crock pot sesame honey chicken
5. Cucumber watermelon martinis (summer!!!)

5 Things I'm Thinking About Today:
1. When can I go on vacation?
2. Should I go to the gym tonight or tomorrow?
3. What should I order for lunch at Douzo?
4. My Grandpa was born during the Great Depression (he's 85 today).
5. How to celebrate TKO's bday in March!?

5 Places I Want to Travel to:
1. The Grand Canyon
2. Tanzania
3. Galapagos Islands
4. Bora Bora [Bora] (Inside joke for any "Orange is the New Black" fans)
5. Tokyo (ya, know for a casual meal at Sukiyabashi Jiro)

5 Dresses I Want:

5 Things I'm Looking Forward To:
1. May weddings! Specifically, Maja & Tom's wedding on the 30th and Missy & Dan's wedding on the 31st.
2. Going to Killington, VT for a weekend in March with friends.
3. Kitchen Kibitz at Shojo on Sunday. I went to my first pop-up for the Thanksgivukkah celebration and loved it, so I can't wait to see what's in store this time.
4. The Beanpot! I wasn't sure if I wanted to go this year, but now that I bought a ticket I'm excited to go and cheer on Northeastern.
5. Tom's company party next week! I'm excited to meet his co-workers and to check out The Beat Hotel in Harvard Square.