Protein??

My internet is totally trippin today.. you all know that I, ahem, borrow my internet at the moment and I would like to know why it goes faster when it tells me my signal is low than when it says it's good? This is so backwards to me. Anyway, let's see if I can get through a whole post shall we?
First things first.. the car is back and running well. I would recommend to everyone that if you have a personal friend who is a mechanic to consult with them before letting anyone work on your car, no matter how much you trust your place. I trust my place, they have saved me a ton of money in the past, but still wanted to start with something so crazy expensive and my ex gave a better suggestion.. one that ended up being right. Good thing we are now on good terms because he saved my ass on that one.
Secondly, I am a little bummed out today. I went for a run yesterday before my 8 hour shift at Target, and while I'm happy I did that, my knees are killing me today. They weren't hurting until a few hours into my shift so I don't think the running really caused it, but my left one hurts enough today that I am icing it at the moment and wondering if I am going to be able to do anything today. It will suck if not, because I have the day off for a friend's bridal shower, and I really wanted to run afterward. I guess I will see how the day goes.
Speaking of working out, I have been thinking about my diet and worrying about something I have never stressed over before.... protein. Most people think we need wayy more protein than we actually need, and since there is protein in almost every single food, I have never stressed too hard over it before. However, after reading this post from Averie about how she is now eating more protein for her workouts, I started thinking about my intake. I am working out now and trying to build a little muscle, so naturally I will need more. As we "speak" I am eating oatmeal, which I haven't eaten in months. I made it with almond milk, a banana, some peanut butter, and a big spoonful of wheat germ. Its pretty good! I started finding and following some more food blogs over the weekend and a lot of them have some pretty intense oatmeal recipes, so I will be able to jazz this up a little...(canned pumpkin anyone??? YUM I bet pumpkin oatmeal rocks.) Yesterday I had some Greek yogurt and a Clif bar. So I am definitely getting in more protein than usual. I am trying to get it more from plant sources than animal sources, because even though I never officially gave up eggs or seafood, I haven't eaten them in a LONG time. So I'm not sure how my body will react. I have had dairy in the form a cheese and small amounts of skim milk, but I still worry that I would get sick. Its been a couple of months at least. Not to mention that I believe that plant based proteins are cleaner forms anyway, and better assimilated by the body. But I won't go into all that :)
ANYway, I hope everyone had a good weekend. I am going to spend some time reading blogs and icing my knee, then its off to the shower and Whole Foods after!

Trying To Be Glass-Half-Full... Or Whatever

Ok, so I am supposed to be able to get my car tomorrow. We will see if it's actually fixed, since the other day I left twice, came back both times, left for a third time and needed it towed back. Let's see if 4th time is a charm.
This little episode is setting me back a couple hundred dollars that I don't have. It caused me to stall on at very busy intersections no less than a million times. It caused me to call into Target 3 nights in a row, for a total of $112 that I could have made. (So actually, it cost me over $300. I'm going to choose not to think of it that way.)
It caused more than a couple hours worth of crying, a fight with J, and moment where I considered if stripping for money may just be the most sensible option. However, I already bitched enough in the last post. The only way I get through these extremely stressful times in my life is to see if there is possibly a positive side to the situation. This is what I came up with:

1. I got to work from home today. This means I slept until 6:55, rolled over and turned the laptop on, and did my work while watching TV and laying in bed. I think working from home should be allowed once a week. It was fabulous.
2. Even though I lost money because of calling into Target, this means that last night and tonight I got to run with Molly, and since I am calling into my full time job tomorrow, we will run in the morning, (As long as it's not raining.) This is a total of 3 workouts that I wouldn't have had.
3. My ex-boyfriend is a mechanic, so he was able to tell me what he thought it was. The people at the shop wanted to replace the catalytic converter. EXPENSIVE. The ex told me to start with the fuel filter. MUCH LESS EXPENSIVE. Turns out this has so far done the trick. (FYI, fuel filter? Didn't knew my car had one. Did not know it should have been changed at least twice by now. The car has 130k miles and is 9 years old, and the filter lasted this long, now THAT'S Ford tough.)

Ok, this is all I got. I'm still more than a little bitter, and I actually wrote a post where I let it all out, but I deleted it because I didn't think I should subject you all to it, and there was one person in particular who would have probably been hurt by it. Not that they read this blog, but when I become a famous blogger, I don't want that out there for the paparazzi to publish when they try to ruin me. But the act of writing it, editing it, and deleting it made me feel a ton better even though no one will ever read it. Thanks everyone for your support and nice comments while I deal with yet one more financial punch to the face, it makes everything a little easier to know that you are all crossing your fingers for me :)

A Very, Very Bad Day

Today was.. well, not good. I have been having some car issues lately and I have been praying that it holds on until I can scrape up the money for it. Well, the issues that the car was having are fine. But a whole new set came about today, and caused a hot mess on my way to Target.

Let me explain. This weekend I brought the car to the auto shop that sold me my battery, because the mechanic told me it was leaking. So I had him test it. It tested fine, and I went on my way. J had the car the next day, and it wouldn't start. Come to find out, the battery was not attached correctly. So on my way to work tonight, my plan was to stop at the auto shop and have them fix it. Until the car totally died, right in the middle of a busy intersection, 5 pm. Not. Ok. I burst out crying, and some guy came over and got it going and followed me the rest of the way. LONG story short, they thought they fixed it, I drove it home and stalled out twice, and had it towed back. They don't know what's wrong with it, but I have no money to fix anything really... and I was declined when I applied for the mechanic's credit card. I have no idea what to do. I need this car. I had to call in to Target for today and tomorrow, and that's loss of income that I really need right now. If I can't get to Target, neither can J. It means that I can get to my full time job, because I have a friend who will get me, but that's it. I'm so stressed. The only positive thing that happened tonight was the fact that I was smart enough to sign up for roadside assistance through Allstate... GO ALLSTATE. Much better than AAA.

At the end of the day, I need my car. And even after I fix this issue, there is still the other, very expensive issue that was found last week during the oil change. And the inspection is coming up. And.. I'm starting to feel like I'm drowning, so I'm going to stop now. I hate this feeling. I hate that I bust my ass for 70 hours a week, putting off having a normal life, just so that we can survive. And just when I think things are going to look up, something happens to throw me back to the ground. Sorry everyone. I'm really bitter right now, and I'm going to stop before I start crying for the millionth time tonight.

Randomness

First of all, I was so excited to get on blogger today and see that I have 3 new followers! Welcome to TLD, I hope you like it :) With that being said, I don't have a lot going on. I have a headache at the moment, probably due to a slightly stressful day and the literal clouds of pollen floating around outside. I had today off from work and planned to lay out, but my wish to NOT turn yellow trumped that plan. So I ran a couple of errands and now I'm home in bed, relaxing. I have a couple weekend highlights to share, so I will do that and hopefully have something more interesting tomorrow.

• Number one, I am brought to you today, via my comfy bed, by my wonderful neighbor with unsecured wireless. She is making my life a ton easier, and since I have no plans to get on child porn sites or anything like that, she is safe with me stealing her signal.
• Now I feel the need to clarify that I'm not a total scumbag. I actually do pay for my own internet, but at the moment its not wireless. And my regular computer is so full of viruses that as soon as its turned on, so many popups come up that its impossible to even see the desktop and the internet icon. So I need a wireless router. And until that day, (soon, I promise, ) lets all thank the neighbor. And if I knew specifically who it was, they would get all sorts of flowers from me and never know why.
• I have done lots of exercise this weekend. I told you on Thursday about the run with Molly and I am happy to say she has been subjected to it twice more since then... Saturday and Sunday. Friday I had to work all day and night, but when I got to Target, they were down one cart attendant. So I volunteered. And all night everyone was all, why are you doing that? Why are they making you push carts? And I was like, HELLO, I volunteered!! It was 80 out, sun was shining, and I needed exercise. So for 5 hours, I pushed carts with my cart attendant buddy. It was a fabulous time, and on Saturday I woke up so sore that I could barely move. But I still went for a run. And I endured the 7 hours of teasing later on at Target because I couldn't walk normally. I was that sore.
• Today, I am sad to say that I did not work out, even though I have the day off. I wanted to go tonight, and I have a major headache now so it isn't going to happen. Its one thing that will definitely make me cancel plans, a headache. Because mine are pretty major. So I am chillin, and I'm pretty sure Molly is relieved.
• I did go to Whole Foods today, and came across a fabulous find.... vegan cookie dough. They make vegan cookies, and so I thought I would ask if I could buy just raw dough. And yes, you can. Here is where it started.... I have a new obsession with cookie dough ice cream. But I don't like vanilla ice cream, or ice cream really at all for that matter. So I eat it for the cookie dough. This became a problem the other night when I bought Edy's and there was exactly 6 pieces of cookie dough in the entire thing. (And no, I did not eat the entire thing. But I did pick it totally apart to find the cookie dough, became pissed when I found 6 pieces, and now the rest is sitting in the freezer.) So I decided to just buy cookie dough.. might as well cut out the middle man and a bunch of calories from something I don't even like, right? Until my mother came down all upset because of the raw eggs. So voila.. vegan cookie dough it is. And its fabulous, and I highly recommend it.
• Now, I am making dinner. Tonight, its a boca burger with Amy's Organic Mac n Cheese. I don't even remember the last time I had a dinner like that, and its funny how something like this went from being a healthy option, to an every-day option, and now a rare treat-option. It makes me feel proud of how far I have come. And after it gets dark, if my headache has gone away, maybe Molly and I will take a relaxing walk around my complex. For now, its dinner and Mr and Mrs Smith. Angie is a bad ass, and my girl crush, and Brad.. well, we all know how hot he is. So have a fab night everyone, I will be enjoying my last few hours of freedom to the fullest!!

Poor Molly...

I took her out for a run last night. (Insert extreme excitement about getting some exercise HERE.) As I was writing my post for IITGI, I realized that even though I am busy, there are still times where I can work out but I don't. So after the usual night-off nap, I threw on running shoes, grabbed the leash and my ipod and trotted Molly out the door. At first she was super excited, pulling me along, and running with all the speed her little legs could handle. (Perhaps I should mention that this was not a straight out run, it was a walk/run.) She seemed a little mad at me when I slowed down to walk, and I had to be all, chill Molly. You know I'm out of shape. We will run again in a few minutes. And we did... and after about the third interval, she started not to pull me. And after about 15 minutes, she started making up excuses to take a break, like trying to show me she had to pee but nothing was coming out. But she would squat down, and try with all her might to make me just stop for a second. We ended up doing our run/walk for about a half hour, 45 minutes or so, and by the end she was walking behind me. After we got home, she drank an entire bowl of water and collapsed under the fan when I turned it on high. She pay there, panting, for an entire half hour. In her defense, it was about 80 degrees out, but since I wanted to do this when it was still light out, she didn't have a choice. And the vet said she needs to lose 5 pounds. So she is in this with me, whether she likes it or not. Tomorrow I will take pity on her and we will go earlier in the morning, before it gets too hot. And she will like it, I know she will :)

For me, this made me feel great. I am not a runner at all. In high school, I could run for an entire soccer game, but when the coach made us run a mile for practice, I was at the end of the pack dying for air. Its just not my thing. My little brother used to be a serious runner, running like a hundred miles in a week or something crazy like that. I was happy to read that interval training makes you drop weight faster than just running or walking alone, because this means I can disguise my lack of endurance with the excuse that its more effective. I hope it is. I am going to keep my gym membership for now because I want to use the stepper, elliptical, and I love yoga and spinning. (All things on the "when I can quit Target" list.) But its getting nice out, and I like being able to get Molly's energy out, and its not as much of an ordeal as going to the gym. My face last night was BRIGHT red, and I was worn out, and I am sore today, but its good. I really want this 15 pounds gone. I want my abs and my arms back. I want to look good when I go to Jay's friends wedding in June. My goal now is that on the weekends and my nights off from Target, I will get something in for exercise. For the immediate future, this means tomorrow, Sunday and Monday. Molly, get ready.

YAY!!!!

Guess who posted on In It To Gym It?? And its up there now, check it out!!

My Growing Hatred For Processed Foods

Most of you know by now that I strive to eat mostly organic foods. Of course I don't like the idea of all those chemicals in my produce, and I don't like to think of all those steroids and antibiotics and all that in the meat that Jay eats. But probably the biggest reason has to do with processed foods. I'm not saying that I don't eat them, because I think most people do at one point or another during the day. However, its important to make these organic as well, and an article that I read yesterday proves my point..

I think most of you hear that High Fructose Corn Syrup is bad for you. No matter what those stupid commercials tell you, (you know the ones, "its nutritionally the same as sugar and fine in moderation," blah blah, and yes, those commercials come from the corn industry, big surprise..) its horrible and its in EVERYTHING. I heard today that Duke has confirmed a study that getting too much of this garbage can actually cause a type of hepatitis because when eaten, it goes right to your liver and since its an unnatural substance, your liver cannot metabolize it. So it almost instantly turns to fat, causing cirrhosis, scarring, fatty liver, hepatitis, and even cancer. And.. there are not always side effects. So this could be happening, and you would never know about it. I decided a long time ago to try to eliminate this from my diet as much as possible and that's when I realized just how widespread it it. For example, the Campbell's tomato soup that I used to eat all the time. Along with a laundry list of other ingredients, HFCS is right up there. I switched to a brand called Pacific Natural Foods, and got their creamy tomato. Ingredients, (all organic,) are: Reduced fat milk, filtered water, tomato paste, evaporated cane juice, sea salt, sodium citrate, rice flour, cheese flavor, garlic powder, onion powder, white pepper. And I know, could it be better? Probably. But there are no chemicals or HFCS in sight, and it tastes amazing.

As bad as HFCS is, this is still not the reason for writing this, since unless you work for the corn industry, you should already know this is bad for you. No, the reason is.... FOLIC ACID. Apparently eating too much of this greatly increases cancer risk as well. And this is something that most people think is a good thing, myself included. In the late 90's, food companies started fortifying a lot of foods with folic acid because it reduces birth defects in newborns. I guess they thought they would put it in everything, because you can't get too much of a good thing. What they neglected to do was study the long term risk of this, because now they are seeing that along with the jump in folic acid consumption came a 21% increased risk of cancer. And similiar to HFCS, its in everything.

So what can you do, since these things and God knows what else is running rampant in the American diet? The government makes these decisions without fully informing the public or testing the potential dangers, and we unknowingly eat foods containing these things every single day. My choice is to take the time to read labels and eat organic as often as possible. Who knows that they will come up with in a few years and say oops, we decided it would be good to put this in all processed foods and didn't realize that it made your eyes bleed after 3 years of consumption. This is also why I didn't get a swine flu shot. It wasn't tested enough IMO, and I was not going to put something in my body that no one was sure what would potentially happen after. (Major, MAJOR family rift after my parents heard that I wasn't getting one. HUGE.)

Sorry for such a long post, but it makes me so angry. I feel like for the vast majority of Americans, the FDA is treating them like guinea pigs. They come up with medicines to treat an illness, and a while later reveal that it causes something else equally as bad. They want to pepper our foods with new chemicals, minerals, even vitamins such as folic acid, and then decide afterwards that maybe it wasn't such a good idea. Eating is something we ALL do. There is no way around it, and I am a firm believer that food is the basis for health and well being. Please, try to be as informed as possible about what you are eating. Everyone makes mistakes, and I am still learning every day, but I do the best I can because not only do I want a long life, I want good quality of life. And that's becoming rarer and rarer every day.