Moving Day

I've wanted to do this for a long time, but this blog has officially moved!  To continue following, I'll be at internalignition.wordpress.com.  Please keep following me, and thank you for everything!

Day 103--So Long Self

Admittedly there is a double entendre with this blog title.  I thoroughly enjoyed my day off from school, sleeping in, having a great work out, eating good food, relaxing, hanging out with friends...but its important we don't lose sight of WHY we get today off.  Because of my Savior's willingness to die, I can wake up each and every day, whether early or late, skinny or fat, with friends or alone, and know that my human self doesn't matter one stinking bit because Christ has redeemed my soul.  So on this Good Friday, I say So Long Self...not only are you a great workout song, but you're also a reminder of exactly who I am.  To use one of my favorite quotes: "I don't have a soul.  I AM a soul. I have a body."  And my soul is redeemed.

Breakfast--Return of the Steel Cut Oats.  It's been a while since I woke up early enough or with enough time to make some steel cut oats, but it was well worth it today.  I had about a third of a cup of dry oats with a tablespoon or so of peanut butter stirred in.  Delicious and filling.

Exercise--I hopped on the elliptical to try to save my legs some impact abuse, and I could immediately tell the difference.  It wasn't a taxing workout from a fatigue, weariness, "I'm about to fall over here" standpoint, and yet my heart rate was elevated and I maintained a great pace for about twenty minutes.  I also did some weight work, and then the kicker, some body weight squats.  Between the new cardio on the elliptical and the squats, my quads are VERY unhappy right now.  Might have overdone it a bit.

Lunch--Two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on whole wheat with jalapeno chips. I tried my new strawberry rhubarb preserves...kinda funky with the peanut butter.  And it almost has an autumnal flavor to it with the spices, so it was very out of place.  I think it would have been incredible about 6 months ago.  Whoops.

Dinner--Sushi!  Went to Miyako sushi with some of Abby's friends from optometry school and had a great time.  We split the spicy tuna roll with crunchy rice and I had the S&M roll (no idea why its called that...maybe because it's supposed to be spicy?) while Abby had the crunchy roll.  Oh, and I also had grilled jalapeno sushi, which literally consisted of half of a grilled jalapeno with sushi rice bound with seaweed.  I think the jalapeno was pickled in some soy sauce, because it was AMAZING.  The whole meal was great, because I love fish, and it was very well prepared.  We will certainly be going back.

So Good Friday = truly good.  And I'll leave you with the witty, and thought-provoking, tweet of one Mo Rocca:  TGIGF!!

Day 102--A Welcome Speed Bump

So, I was truckin' along, heading towards more weight loss glory, and then BAM: Thursday happened.  Whoops.

Breakfast--I overslept by a good 45 minutes today, waking up shortly after I need to leave my apartment to get to school on time.  This led to me grabbing a Fiber One bar as I was walking around the classroom getting stuff ready for the day.  Terrible breakfast.

Lunch--"Chicken" sandwich.  Usually I don't mind today, because its a chicken patty sandwich (not the greatest, but at least no sauce/cheese/unnecessary fat addition) with baked potato wedges and asparagus.  The chicken wasn't bad, but the potato wedges were cold and the asparagus was literally swimming in butter. Like, it had a yellowish tinge from the fat.  GROSS.  So I finished it off with a piece of bread and Justin's chocolate peanut butter for a more filling meal.

Snack--A couple of my delicious cookies.  Probably the best thing I've ever baked. Seriously.  I have students who will back me up on this.

Dinner--Tonight we had a gathering of friends (party just sounds weird and strangely ineffective to describe tonight) at the St. Germains.  Met a lot of new people, had some wonderful pizza and cupcakes (yep...) and had an all-around great time.  Thanks for the invite guys!

So there you have it.  Bad sleeping habits, unhealthy meals, no exercise...took me three days to fall back into bad habits.  The good news is that I have tomorrow off to work out and undo some of the damage, and I drank a lot of water today to help keep me relatively full in the in between.  So we'll see how bad things are tomorrow!

Day 101--Who Knew MercyMe Was Great Workout Music?!

The beauty of a four-day week at school is that Thursday suddenly becomes Friday and we all get to relax a day earlier.  The unfortunate side is that sometimes you forget what day it is, like today when I thought Wednesday was actually Tuesday and so I forgot to go to Science Olympiad.  Oops.  The ironic thing is that I had a conversation at lunch today about how if it wasn't for chapel I actually would forget what day it was...and then I did. Fail.

Breakfast--Cinnamon Swirl oatmeal.  Start the day out with fiber and you'll feel fuller than normal...which is a good thing when trying to lose some pounds.

Snack--Fiber On...FAKE OUT.  I actually consciously ate something else, which in this case was about three palmfuls of smokehouse almonds.  Probably too many, but it was only 260 calories, which is a great dose of protein and healthy fats (also nice when trying to feel full.)

Lunch--My beautiful wife decided to bring me lunch today!  I had a footlong turkey, toasted with bacon, lettuce, green peppers, cucumbers, jalapenos, and black pepper from Subway along with half a bag of Baked Lays BBQ.  The food was good...having lunch with Abby was better.  Thanks babe!

Dinner--No snack...took a nap instead.  Abby is spending the evening with some of her friends from Optometry school, so I was on my own.  She likes to work out before dinner, and I'd rather do it afterwards when I have more energy from the food.  Therefore, the schedule was flipped today.  For dinner, I took the two extra burger patties from yesterday, half an onion, and three eggs and made breakfast tacos with some corn tortillas.  It was great, and should have been a solid dose of protein from all the meat and eggs.

Dessert--I made cookies. Chocolate chocolate chip cookies to be exact.  In fact, I undercooked them a bit so they were warm, gooey, chocolatey...and I had the willpower to only eat one.  Holla.  The rest shall be gifts...I just like baking, even if the results make me large (and in charge).

Exercise--I ran about two miles, and I actually mean ran.  I've always had problems staying focused running, because I usually get bored out of my mind and then I focus on how tired I am and then I quit.  Today I went with the Generous Mr. Lovewell album from MercyMe, and WOW.  Whenever I got tired, a song like Move, All of Creation, or Beautiful would come on and I would get this incredible burst of energy.  I spent all of All of Creation running with my hands lifted in praise to God...something I probably couldn't do without falling over most days and something I definitely wouldn't do with other people in the room, but today I overcame both.  According to my Nike+, I burned about 340 calories, which is a nice workout.

All in all, a great day.  Good nap, good food, GREAT workout, and tomorrow is "Friday."  I think I'm well on my way to my new goal!

Day 100--Goooaaaaaalllllll!

Ironic title because Manchester United has been el sucko lately, but oh well.  I'm taking a cue from Nathan MacDonald and setting a new goal for myself in my weight-loss odyssey.  For those that are loyal readers, you may remember that my old goal was to not be so large for my sister's wedding.  I (sorta) achieved that goal, because I looked better but with the way tux sizes roll I was still in a suit designed for a much larger man.  Anyways, that goal was a month ago tomorrow, and I can tell since I haven't set a new one that I'm much more prone to relaxing, splurging, and maintaining the status quo instead of working hard on my health.  So here we go:  School ends May 27th, exactly 37 days from now, and I'd like to lose 10 pounds between now and then.  That's around 2 pounds a week, and it will certainly require more work than I've been putting in recently, but I think I can do it.  If (WHEN!) I succeed, I'll be down to 220 lbs, also known as my junior year of college on my way up to 230.

Breakfast--Peanut butter and strawberry jam toastwich on whole wheat bread.  I accidentally bought jam as opposed to preserves, but I'm not complaining...makes for a great filling in cakes and actually makes for a more satisfying toastwich.  Duly noted...self.

Snack--Moving along...

Lunch--Tuna salad with crackers.  Thankfully this is a four-day week, and thankfully there's only like 27 days of school lunches left (not that I'm counting...) so I won't have to A) eat their food and B) keep eating the same simplistic options for lunch all the time.  That will be a glorious day.

Snack--Two cups of kettle corn during my off period.  Trying the healthy snack thing again...I told you, I fell off the horse.

Exercise--That's a word not recently seen 'round these here parts, but sure enough I got off my butt and trekked over to the workout room.  I ended up running/walking for 20 minutes and probably could have gone more but I got bored.  Then I lifted some weights to work out some tension in my shoulders, and all was well in the world.  I also tried my new Nike/iPod Plus that Abby got me for my birthday (Yes, my birthday was 2 months ago.  I lost the receiver for a while, then stopped working out...its had an inauspicious beginning.) and I really liked it except I used my iPhone and the music on there is more driving music than workout music, so I ended up using Mumford and Sons, which worked out really well.  Something about The Cave leads to great running...

Dinner--Bacon burgers, Jason-style.  Abby diced and crisped three slices of bacon that I integrated into the burger patties, and since my 1.3 pounds of chuck made about 6 patties, we probably only ate a slice of bacon each.  Using toasted sandwich thins as buns and minimal condiments means it was a really healthy burger.  We had chips and beans as a side to go with the bacon burgers.

Dessert--Dreyer's Chocolate Chip ice cream bars.  One bar is only 130 calories and really good, especially to satisfy a chocolate craving.  Unfortunately, they're also expensive and we're kind of broke, so when the box ends, I'll have to find alternative sources of goodness.  C'est la vie.

So here we go...37 days for 10 pounds.  We can do this!

Day 99--Slow Cookers and Donuts

Today was a vast array of triumphs and defeats, especially in the culinary department.  While all Mondays are, by definition, atrocious this one was less bad than others.  I've noticed that as the school year inches to a close, two things are happening: 1) the students are getting more and more rambunctious and undisciplined, and 2) the teachers are becoming stricter and losing patience.  This, of course, is a bad combination for all involved, and I told my students as much today.  Hopefully we can work together to keep everything in line for the rest of the year, but I certainly doubt it.

Breakfast--In my Senior Bible class we watched Invisible Children this morning, so I decided to be nice and bring in some donuts for the class.  Unfortunately, I also ate three of them. Whoops.

Snack--Fiber One bar.  It's like I could create a template for this blog and just keep firing that out.

Lunch--Salad greens with grilled chicken, carrots, and a Snickers chaser.

Snack--Some cracked black pepper and sea salt chips while I was waiting for dinner to get ready.  They're my new favorite kind of chip, but I can't find many that I like as much as my first batch from some random brand at school.  Any suggestions?

Dinner--Braised brisket that I've had in the slow cooker for about 5 hours yesterday and an hour or so today.  All I did was add a pound and a half of brisket (seared off and seasoned with salt and pepper), a jar of roasted pepper salsa, a chopped onion and some water to loosen it up a bit, then let it do its thing.  It was amazing, especially with some salad and roasted potatoes seasoned with rosemary from my rosemary plant on the balcony. Score!

Dessert--A piece of whole wheat pita with chocolate peanut butter and marshmallow creme...a poor man's S'more if you will.

So, donuts are bad, brisket is good, and tomorrow is another go at it.

Day 98--Awkward Hand Motions

Had the privilege to teach class this morning at church, and for the first time in a while, I felt really good about the outcome.  We focused on John 15, where Jesus tells His disciples that He is the vine and we are the branches.  In the midst of our discussion on gardening, memories, and the apocalypse (ask if you want to know), Jason Toy made some ridiculous hand motion for a vine with branches.  It resembled spirit fingers, an awkward palm tree, and what I can only assume is the hand-motion for "pay me my money!"  It was incredibly weird and cannot be duplicated.

In other news...Abby's home!  Huzzah!  The cat is still psychotic, we're both relatively exhausted, but at least I can hear the sound of another live human being.  She had a wonderful weekend on the retreat but I have to admit I like her here as opposed to there.

Breakfast--Fiber One bar.  I actually ate something else too, but I can't remember what it was.  I got up early, made dinner for tomorrow in the slow cooker, got showered, dressed for church, put some stuff up from the dishwasher, reloaded the dishwasher, ate the unknown product and a Fiber One bar, then went to church.  I just cannot for the life of me remember what that was.

Lunch--Panera Bread!  I had a Thai Chicken Salad with a small piece of baguette.  The salad was PHENOMENAL.  It had lettuce, chicken, edamame, roasted red peppers, wonton strips, cilantro and a spicy thai vinaigrette.  Absolutely fantastic, to the point where I may have to drive back down there to have it again this week.

Snack--So I finally made a decent gluten-free dessert.  My first attempt at flourless chocolate cake was a rousing success, given that my Life Group absolutely demolished over half of it.  For the final presentation, I layered some strawberry jam and almond "shingles" on top.  It doesn't look the greatest, but for my first try, I'm fairly pleased.  Hopefully the recipient will be just as happy! (I listed this as snack because I nibbled while making it.  It was goooooood.)

Dinner--Sonic before Life Groups.  I had a Sonic burger with mustard (the low calorie alternative), tater tots (not so low-calorie), and cherry Dr. Pepper.  Good meal, but a great Life Groups.  I love those guys.

So all in all, not a terrible weekend.  I've decided that the sheer act of living in Houston destroys most of my baking attempts, so whenever I recreate this stuff in a lower humidity climate I should be infinitely more successful.  Congrats Houston: you killed something I truly love.