Book Review, New Recipe, New Tips & How-Tos Section

Good Morning! I hope you're all having good days so far - I'm feeling a little sick (allergies/sinus) but i'm trying to power through it! Backing up... Saturday I finished Karin Alvtegen's Missing. I started this at the beach and quickly got halfway through - then set it down... until I picked it up yesterday and finished it. A quick, good read (only 294 pages). The book is a "Swedish thriller" about a privileged woman who is living as a drifter. She is quickly accused of murder, and throughout the story you follow the murders. Did she do them? If she has money why is she living a homeless lifestyle? The story flashes back to her past, growing up, and what led her to where she is, and the present as you try to figure out if she is the murderer and if not, who is. I really enjoyed the book, lots of twists and the whole time you really believed her story and worried about her safety. I give it a 4.5/5 - well edited and had a good, suspenseful pace.

After reading, I worked on videos and added a new section to the site: Tips & How Tos. It is a place that includes a lot of my posts about things like weight loss & workouts, home organization, cooking & food, etc. I also included stuff like my first 100 days and how I set goals. It was fun to read and resurface some of these posts, and I hope to build on this page as I continue blogging! Guess who kept me company?

Seriously - best companions ever

Love this little fella!

Then I cooked a recipe and got ready for a party at Lo's! We had fun, had a few drinks, met some nice people, played cornhole then called it a night! Sunday we slept in- SO nice! Then we did stuff around the house before heading up to Lake Lanier to Sharon & Terry's for Father's Day. We visited for a few hours, got to wish Tyler a happy birthday in person (he was in NY for his 21st birthday) then headed back to home to work, do laundry, and get ready for the week. Here's a few pics:

Who doesn't love cookie cake?

Happy Birthday, Tyler!

And a new recipe - a new pasta bake we've been munching on!

Mexican Bake with Cilantro-Lime Cream
Makes 6 Servings
Recipe adapted from Diabetic Living
Nutritional Information: 393 calories, 59 carbs, 5 fat grams and 30 protein grams.

Check out the recipe at Healthified Kitchen!

Q: What was the highlight of your weekend?

Q: What's an update you recently did to your blog, or that you plan to do?

Learn from Everyone...Follow No One..Watch for Patterns...Work Like Hell

Head's up - this post is a bit different - I saw something that made me think, and thought I'd share... :)

When it comes to anything, I do my research. I’m just that way. I don’t buy one recipe book and make recipes, I go to 20+ blogs, multiple books and magazines, recipe sites and databases and more, and slowly build my own recipe book of favorites. If I find a recipe for slowcooker spaghetti, I try to find 4-5 different recipes and compare them, to see what would be the best mix for my palette. Before we got our puppy Reuben I needed to learn more. I watched training videos on Comcast on demand, borrowed a book from my sis, visited training websites, talked to pupper-having friends and made my own booklet and schedule that works for us, based on all of these sources. I’m not saying I was right or wrong to do things this way, or that I did anything groundbreaking or genius, it’s just how I do things. It’s how I planned my wedding (multiple books, chats with friends, websites, etc.), it’s how I began pre-cooking, and it’s how I’m slowly becoming a runner.

Where is all of this coming from? I watched this TED talk. I LOVE TED talks. This one struck me because of one of its core messages:

1. Learn from Everyone
2. Follow No One
3. Watch for Patterns
4. Work like Hell

While he was talking about comics in an incredibly interesting, visual way, these messages just leapt out and resonated with me so much.

• I feel like a lot of people start at #2. And it is probably my #1 pet peeve. Why not ask someone who’s been there before you? When I wanted a puppy, I called my sister, my friend Teresa, I talked to my mom. I researched online. When I needed to buy a new camera for work, I reached out to my bro-in-law, a photographer. Why not learn from other people? Drives me crazy.
• And those people who do #1- #3. They’re ready, they’ve planned it out; all that’s left is execution. Nope, they’ve tired out, and #4 goes by the wayside making #1 - #3 all for naught. (well not ALL for naught... but you know what I mean!)
• I also find it annoying when people do #1 and then #4. Like whoa – slow your roll, find something that works for YOU. Do the research. Find out what you believe. Avoid the magic bullet: take information and act. Get your own information and form your own opinions.

Where is all of this going? Well, as you can see and as I’ve always known, I’m a very process-oriented person. Do this, then that and voila you get this. I like this system because note that there is no #5. There is no ‘5. Realize Success.’ No one knows if “working like hell” will actually yield the results you’re looking for. But to me, when you do it “right” (i.e. follow the steps above) it increases the likelihood for success because you’re in it. You’re invested. And so you want to succeed so much more.

This is why I like blogging and this community. No two blogs are alike. No one is following the EXACT same exercise program, nutrition plan, etc. But we’re all learning from each other, doing our own thing, patterns are highly visible (themes include: health, cardio, strength training, etc.) and we’re all working our butts off and motivating each other to keep going. Do we reach success? Sometimes. But ultimately, I feel like we’re all enjoying the ride, evidenced by the fact that we blog our progress and congratulate each other’s small victories.

Q: What do you think of the four steps above?

Q: Are you a process-oriented person?

(stepping off soapbox)

Sorry friends! Felt passionate about that and had to share! On a lighter note, here's my day yesterday: work, 4-mile walk at 4 mph during lunch, work more and straight home for chill time with the family, a bit of cooking, a bit of TV and a bit of tidying up. Lovely Tuesday fo sho! Something that made me laugh: The Blonde Duck's blog post - I love when she addresses her readers as "invisible friends." hehe Something that made me smile: Your sweet comments about new pupper - I think she's a doll! Thanks again! On another note:

TRUE STORY! Sigh. Groan. Grrrrr.

Marie Claire Accuses Food Bloggers of Being Unhealthy

I'm not sure how many of you read the Marie Claire article: The Hunger Diaries: How Health Writers Can Be Putting You at Risk. I checked it out this a.m. after having read about it on a few blogs. I personally don’t read any of these six blogs regularly, but have heard of their blogs from other bloggers and remember stopping by occasionally over my last couple of years blogging. Regardless of how frequently I read, I feel so sorry for them all right now. I just can’t imagine how betrayed they must feel by the author. She definitely took, what I think, is a build-up-buddy blog community and tore it apart, pointed fingers and made these girls seem like they were telling people what size to be, what to eat, etc., when really, the impression I get is that they’re doing what we all do – just sharing. Sharing recipes, chatting about daytime work drama, recapping races, posting exercise moves, etc. Not trying to tell anyone how much to eat or run or anything. I don’t know, I was just really disappointed that she messed with these ladies. And the thing is, perhaps there is something to what she was trying to prove. Who knows? Certainly not us because her article got so caught up in naming names and citing out-of-context information to prove her point that it got lost. It was odd. Like she had some kind of personal agenda.

I don't post pictures of everything I eat. I never have. Truth be told i'm just really bad at remembering! But I do post calories and use the site as a tool to track my calories and workouts, not as a tutorial for what anyone else should be doing.

Q: What do you think about the article? What do you think about the idea that food blogging is dangerous?

Edited to post: I just figured out what this reminds me of... the Sex and the City where Carrie thought she was in a 40 and fabulous article but they got her after staying up all night/smoking a cigarette: 40 and fabulous? Totally skewed article that came out of no where. So wrong!

I'll return to regular programming later - just thrown off by this article!

Blog Thoughts, 4 Miles, A bit of pre-cooking

Austin sent me this image, along with a bunch of others, in a forward a couple of weeks ago. I love it. It reminded me a lot of you bloggies. None of us are the same - at all. Some track calories, but not workouts. Some are anti-tracking period the end. Some eat meat while others are vegan. Some live by the green monster. Some, like me, keep meaning to try them. However, no one has ever (to my knowledge) had a problem with what I do or why I do it - it's very much a personal thing and "doing what works for you." I respect THAT and am so glad that you guys are so supportive of what I'm doing, for me, even if it's not in line with what you're doing or the goals you have set.

I know that I'm all over the place with my blog - jumping from books to cooking to working out to going out. A little bit of shopping, a little bit of "house stuff." My goals change often, as do my interests, and i'm sure I define success differently than others (actually I know I do - some of you are anti-scale, which, I respect!). But I guess to me that's what makes it interesting - seeing what you're all doing, figuring out how I can adopt it or understand it, and getting ideas from you. Very cool! Thank you for that!

Q: What does being successful mean to you?

Q: How do you know when you've been successful?

Stepping off soapbox.... back to normal programming. So yesterday was SO incredibly blah. Stacy was out sick, Mel was on vacay and the office was just quiet. I still felt like a zombie so I just quietly sat in my cubicle and worked, walked 4 miles during lunch & read 50 more pages of Wildwood, worked more and then went STRAIGHT home and got in bed. Lame, I know! I just worked on some more stuff for Austin's birthday, pre-cooked 4 servings of turkey sausage pasta and 4 servings of easy thai curry, messed with a few more meal plans and called it a night! I ended up at 1,660 calories, 198 carbs, 57 fat grams and 77 protein grams. Here's what I ate. Oops - just noticed the lunch & dinner are on the lunch line - my bad!

Today is much less blah so far! Looking forward to double workouts and Twilight with my mom!!! What are you doing tonight?