Update Blog.

Hello Readers! As I stated in my last post, my update blog is a bit late this time around, but I promise not to let that happen again. Here I stand before you (only) 3 pounds lighter. Your girl is trying but being 21 has added some extra calories into my life. But don't you worry, I'm back on the horse. There's a new moon beginning tonight, and bitch, you better believe, I'm ready.

I know I have a long way to go, but this is a journey I promised myself I'd finish. And on this journey I've come to love the people around me, love the meals I've made, love my workouts, and most importantly: love myself.

Love yourself today, moon babies, the time is yours.

It's been a long time since I rock 'n' rolled.

Hello! I feel like I haven't blogged in a long time, and it's been 3 weeks, and I missed my update blog, I am sorry for all of these things. However, I can not take an update blog today, it would be a bad representation of myself. I am currently bloated from sangria, diet snapple, and coffee. This particular post is about: Gaga, how to eat healthfully when you're eating out, and my new workout routine. Allow me to explain:

I woke up yesterday and my first thoughts were, "Gaga tonight!" I was so excited that when I got to the gym, I told the person working out next to me that I was going to see Gaga. She just smiled and knodded. Whatever. The day was finally here to see my beloved at Madison Square Garden with my great friend and always fun food partner: Lindsay Girden. We attempted to catch the 2:46pm train from South Orange, it was 30 minutes (aka 35 minutes) late picking us up. And boy, were we a sweatin'! Yesterday was a scorcher, am I right? So we get on the train, it was so much cooler and we were finally relaxed. And then, as though the anti-Gaga gods were smiting us the train shut down. No lights, no air, no train sounds. Nothing but an angry old man next to us saying to his quiet wife: "this is ridiculous! We'll never make it to New York!" We did not make it to New York on that particular train, we had to transfer at Seacaucus (6 minutes from Penn Station) but we finally arrived.

Ah, New York. Your stench never ceases to completely disgust me. But I love ya, you know I do. We hopped a cab to Lindsay's (adorable/great) apartment on Avenue A. We arrived, sweaty, tired, and a bit stressed. It was already 5 o'clock, and we still had to eat, drink, get drunk, and go see our girl. So we quickly got dressed, glittered our eyes, purpled our hair, and found a place to eat. Poco is a really cute tapas bar/lounge. We made the decision to do 2 tapas and unlimited Sangria for 30 bucks. For NYC, and for what the meal turned out to be, that was a really ridiculous and awesome price. We sat at the bar and had our first glass of red Sangria, it was a bit watery but it was cool and refreshing. Brad (or Bret) our bartender and (new) friend, told us we could go sit downstairs in the air conditioning when it was all set up. We were totally game for that. We walked downstairs after 2 glasses of Sangria, I stumbled more than I walked, and we arrived in a dark room, with couches, funky chairs, little candles, and awesome cold air conditioning. We ordered: Mushroom truffled croquettes, Gambas al ajillo (spiced shrimp on a garlic toast with sun dried tomato's), tuna ceviche, and the most sinful thing: lobster mac & cheese.

Now, Tapa's, if you're like me and you're watching your weight/what you eat, is a great thing to go for. You get served appetizer/snack sized foods for relatively cheap (depending) and it's not something that will bloat your or make you kick yourself for. Lindsay and I split everything, that was 1 piece of tuna each (thin, lightly oiled, salted and fenneled-so good), 2 croquettes each (small size, like half a golf ball), 2 Gambas (on toast similar to the size of melba toast) and we split the small bowl of lobster mac & cheese. All of this was rich, and good, but we didn't overindulge. I felt great and ready to take on the town. I was also extremely drunk--that is not good for your waistline, but hey, you only see Gaga once, right?

We taxi'ed our way to MSG and the show was awesome. I won't go into too much detail but lets just say we definitely danced, screamed, and sweat off any dinner calories we had. The show was all you'd want it to be: loud, glittery, leathery, sweaty, whiskey smelling, giant fish like monster-y, and fabulous. Oh, so fabulous.

I am home now, recovering, in bed doing what I love: blogging and drinking a gallon of water. I toast this water to you, Lindsay and to you, Gaga. Thank you for a great time.

Tomorrow I start my new work out routine: it will involve more running and more arm strength training. Biceps, triceps, etc. I wanna get toned arms, Michele Obama.....'s arms.... inspired me. I will let you all know the outcome of that. And will post an update blog very soon, probably this week.

Until then, happy eating, living, and for God's sake, stay cool--it's so damn hot.

Taking time to heal-something I can not do.

Ahh, the wisdom teeth. The slightly over enthusiastic, pains in the neck, stubborn, distant cousins of your other teeth. They seem harmless for up to 15-24 years, and then one day you wake up, your cheek is swollen, your gums are throbbing, and even mustering up the word, "ow" is enough to send you through the roof. I, ladies and gentlemen, have an infected and impacted wisdom tooth.

My day so far:
Woke up, complained
Called the dentist, complained
Went to the dentist, took one look at me and said: "that tooth has to come out".
Took an x-ray, was told to take all of my jewelry off.
Forgot to take out my nose ring.
Can see my nose ring in x-ray (looks pretty awesome if anyone needs an Album cover--let your girl know).
Got a perscription for antibiotics.
Called oral surgeon, he can't see me until July 22nd
and can not operate on me until August 20th.

Well, let me tell you. If the antibiotics and pain meds. don't help, I might just have to yank this thing out mah'self. I was also told to relax, which brings me to the point of this blog: what can you do to remain active, relax, and heal? I'm a girl who can not sit still for a second when its before 11 at night. I have to go, go, go, and since I couldn't get my workout in this morning (and I already feel flabby, which is my problem not yours), I had to find a way to keep myself; A. occupied, B. productive, C. exercised, and D. relaxed.

So what did I do? I first came home and painted my nails while watching Hulu episodes of The View (judge if you will, but those ladies slay me. Mainly Whoopi). So I took care of the occupied part, and my nails are now a beautiful color of "Summer Peach", thanks American Apparel (even though I shouldn't support you).

Then I decided to clean out the trunk of my car, and in order to add a bit of exercise in there I parked my car across the street and down a few houses so when I had to bring my stuff (and it was A LOT OF stuff, I'm talking I should be on the show "Hoarders"), I could get some exercise walking to my house. I made about 5 trips from car to house, then up the stairs, it was super hot out today so I got some slight sweat. It felt real good.

And now to relax I just made myself some chocolate milk, laying in bed blogging and doing some Ebay shopping. Going to make some sort of beer-based meal tonight with Andrew, I will be sure to blog the recipe. Tomorrow I head back to work. Hopefully the facial swelling will go down, and hopefully I allow myself to get enough sleep tonight.

The life of a busy bee, is the life for me.

If you don't know, now ya know...

This week I received an unsettling e-mail. Though, I have my suspicions on who wrote it, (leave me the fuck alone, seriously). However, it was interesting enough and I am more than happy to address it and set the record straight. The e-mail:
I will not post the person's e-mail address. Don't need harassment of them or me.

"Katie

Your blog is shallow as fuck. Why the hell do you even bother? Giving people weight loss advice when clearly you have quite a long way to go? Seroiusly. Go away, your blog is fucking retarded, just like you. And have fun with your two a days, hope you pass out in the process."

That was the e-mail, clearly riddled with spelling mistakes, cuss words, and the like. A real genius wrote that. But lets address the REAL issues at hand:

The author of the e-mail stated that this blog is a shallow one. And, as I've said before in blog posts of the past. That is not my intention. But unfortunately anytime a woman talks about her want to lose weight, or better herself, it's automatically shallow. What? I'm not allowed to be a strong, smart, feminist woman and care about my looks? Care about what goes into my body? To that I say: haters to the far left.

I do not believe there is anything shallow about wanting to help myself and others on a more personal/age appropriate level when it comes to weight loss and having a positive self image. This blog is not for everyone, trust me, if you are perfectly happy with yourself and you "hate" food blogs, "hate" weight loss, and "hate" happiness--then please--ex out of this now. No one asked you to be here, ya feel me?

One of my favorite professors of all time, she taught my "Women in Literature" class, once said something that helps me defend my stance here. "A woman should strive to be just as strong, or stronger, than her male counterpart". I believe she meant both mentally, and physically.

Moving on to the next point of interest: "why are you giving weight loss advice when you yourself have a long way to go?" This is true. I do have a long way to go. I am nowhere near the weight I want to be, but let me tell you, I am also nowhere near the weight I once was. This is a weightloss journey for me, and along the way I hope I can give people some feedback, recipes, anecdotes, and serious tales.

I wrote this blog to empower myself. I wrote this blog my sisters, for my best friends, for my acquaintances, for my female friends, for my male friends, for my grandmother, and for my mother. This is a safe place for me to write about myself. Of course I subject myself to ridicule if people do not like my style of writing, my body type, my face, whatever it may be. But again, I didn't do this for those people.

And, "anonymous" e-mailer, as far as me "passing out" I am in the best fucking shape of my life. I could outrun a goddamn deer, out wrestle a fucking alligator and out love a dove. Believe me, when it comes to physical and mental strength- Arnold Schwarzenegger circa 1990 don't got shit on me. Best believe.

To my loyal readers/friends/family, I apologize for my language but I do not apologize for this blog. This is all for you. And, as always, haters--you know where to go.

xoxox

The aftermath of the two-a-days. & update blog!

I am so tired. I can't remember the last time I have been this tired. But, I will tell you one thing: I lost 4 pounds in 1 week. YES. I DID. Two-a-days work, my friends, but this type of exercise is not for the weak of : heart, mind, body or soul. You gotta be strong, and you have to be willing to work, bitch. I used my calorie journal and I turned it into a calorie/work out journal, this is what it contains as far as the two-a-days:

What I did this week:

Monday, woke up at 7AM, went to the gym. Ran 3 miles.  Ran from my house to Dans house at 9:45PM.

Total run: about 5.5 miles.

Tuesday, couldn't wake up. Went to gym at 3PM, ran 4 miles. Tuesday night, ran around the oval.

Total run: about 6 miles.

Wednesday, woke up early, and wen to the gym. Could only run 2 miles. Could only walk 1 mile at night.

Total work out: 2 miles running, 1 mile walking, lots of being tired.

Thursday, couldn't wake up early. Went to the gym at 4, ran 3 miles. Went to yoga at 6:30-8.  Was a sweat-fest.

Total run: 3 miles, 1. 5 hours of yoga. 

Friday, went to the gym in the morning. Ran 5 miles. Went camping at night, could not fulfill the 2 a day work out.

Total run: 5 miles.

Saturday, still camping, had smores the night before. Everyone went hiking, ran approx. 8 miles.

Total run: 8 miles.

Sunday, left the campsite, bittersweet. Showered, RELAXED, slept, blogged.

Total work out: 0 hours, 0 miles.

In the words of the Wu-Tang Clan, "Two-a-days, ain't nothin' to fuck with."

Tomorrow I'm still going to continue with my two-a-days. But I'm not going to feel guilty if I can't get it done. Your girl is exhausted. But I am ready, willing, and prepared to push my body to be all it can be. I'm in charge damnit! Not the tiredness, or the stress. 

Wish me luck, more updates to come, and I'll be 21 in like, 2 weeks, WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!!!!!

2 a days.

So, since I've recently been hitting a plateau in my weight loss journey, I decided to start doing-- TWO A DAYS. Working out both in the morning, and in the evening. And, since summer is here, and I don't have school work to worry about I think I can do this challenge with EASE. I won't work out 2 times Saturday, just once at night, and Sunday's will be my day off (a girls gotta rest).

The plan is: working out Mon-Fri (my work days) at the gym from 7 am - 8 am and then either going for a 3 mile run at night, do yoga, or swim. At the gym I'll probably run on the elliptical, do some weight training (these arms are getting solid, my friends), and sit in the sauna for a bit. I'm really excited for this, I'm going to start on my favorite day to start things--Monday!! As for this week, working out was slacking--but it was the week of PMS. But, no excuses! I'm going to get back on the horse. Today I'm going for a nice long run, it's really gorgeous out--I hope you're all out there enjoying it in some way.

I'll update next Friday and let you know how the two-a-days went. I'm nervous! And excited! I've only done a two-a-day once in my life and that was this past week--it was hard, let me tell you. But my body was built to handle hard things--and I can do it. 

I had a delicious banana today, and a subway sandwich (why am I so addicted? they must put something in that bread). Tonight, is sushi night for me--california roll--here I come. 

Also: new favorite work out music--T.Rex. It also turns me on a bit, no big deal.

Sun-Dried.

Sun-dried is something I would like to be. Where'd you go, old friend? Luckily, I don't need the sun to be shining on me to enjoy some other sun-dried treats: sun-dried tomato's to be exact. For Mother's day we went to Il Vicolo in town, it was really busy, loud, and the service was slow. However, the laughter at my families table, and the delicious food was more than enough to ignore all the shiteous stuff that was going on. 

I ordered the Penne Milano. The name  and the ingredients were simple, and it came with a beet salad--how could I say no? First the beet salad arrived, nothing special, some bits of Gorgonzola cheese stood out, and so did the generous amount of red onion-my breath was kickin. 

Then the Penne Milano arrived. A heaping portion of whole wheat penne (that I had to request, and was charged an extra 2 dollars for--really, Il Vicolo? You gonna play me like that?) Another generous helping of sundried tomatos, and bits of cubed mozzarella and basil leaves scattered about, and way, way, way too much olive oil (yes, there is such a thing). So I decided to break down this meal for you--Katie minus Katie style. 

Ingredients:

3 cups whole wheat pasta (serves 5 people)

2 garlic cloves (minced)

1 tablespoon olive oil

A pinch of salt

1 regular sized  package of sun-dried tomato's (approx. 20 tomato slices)

5 basil leaves

1/2 mozzarella ball (mozzarella should say part-skim for this recipe) (cut the half in half then cube)

Cubes should look about this size.

Start boiling your pasta water, add a pinch of salt.

When the pot is boiling add your pasta.

While the pasta begins to cook, grab a sauté pan and add your tablespoon of olive oil,

your minced garlic cloves, and your sun-dried tomato's. Do this on a LOW HEAT. 

Move the mixture around often and so the tomatoes are covered in the oil (I know it's not a lot of oil but trust me, you don't need much and it does the trick).

Cook the pasta for 5 minutes, then using a slotted spoon, scoop the pasta into the sauté pan.

Letting it finish its cooking process with all the other juices of the meal.

Turn the heat off, letting the residual heat of the pan do its job, add the mozzarella cubes and the basil slices.

Serve with a beet, or a regular salad. This dish is also delicious as a cold pasta dish--you can take it to work! 

Or whatever!

This kind of food is what I consider soul food. And let me tell you-this summer I am on a soul everything. Soul cleansing, soul journey, you name it. I want to rid my life of everything and everyone  that weighs me down. Just like in my Spring Cleaning blog post--this is the time to get it done. Right when a new season is beginning. I just have to keep reminding myself that I am worth the time and effort to be loved, taken care of, and respected. That includes treating MYSELF that way.

More on this emotional and soulful journey to self fulfillment, and self love, coming up in the next few blogs. But, for now, enjoy this recipe--it's a delicious, healthy, and very low-cal one. Approx. 300 calories per serving--I kid you not.

Penne Milano--there's so many ways to love ya.