Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving and Throughout the Year

As today is Thanksgiving, God has given me much to be thankful for this year. I must express gratitude first and foremost to God, who because of His providence in my life 25 years ago my life has been forever changed. Almost 25 years I was adopted by two wonderful parents, brought  out of a situation where if I would have not been adopted I would probably find myself today in the same tough spot where my birth mother found herself. I was her second child, by her second boyfriend, with no stable home and no way of providing for both my sister and me. Thankfully God had a very different plan for my life and I will forever be grateful.

If it weren't for my adoption, I would not have been given the upbringing that my parents have given me, a upbringing where God is the center, His name never mentioned in a disrespectful way and not followed by a string of curse words, where the importance of church  is made plainly known and practiced and if it weren't for those thing might have not gotten saved. Some people might think that a Pastors daughter might not be given the opportunities "allotted" a maturing adult woman. It might seem like a boring and ridiculous way to spend ones life in and around church, however, if it were not for my adoption into this specific family I would not have had gotten to know the amazing Godly role models, who have along with my parents have given me many hours of advice (unsolicited or solicited), who pray for me when I ask and even when I don't ask and who are always willing and ready talk with me about whatever problem I am having in my life. They have been so instrumental in molding my life into what it is today. If it weren't for my adoption I probably would not have the friends that I have today and experienced the closeness of our friendships. I love how I am friends with people in their 40s and those that are 15. Crazy likes crazy I guess. My friends are like a part of my family and I love like I love my family. We're like one big huge crazy loud family. I love my life and even though I experience my ups and downs, they are minuscule to what the problems I could be facing and what my life would have been if I were not adopted.

This year has been crazy and amazing, discouraging and uplifting all at the same time. I had my 5th surgery this year, experienced a merger at work, started wondering if I was making the right choice about my career, have had struggles with friends, strengthened those friendships and prayerfully anticipating their growth. I'm excited to see what God has in store the new friendships that have developed and blossomed this year and where and what they lead to. This year I have been challenged by God especially in my faith in His timing and providence in my life, which is ironic given Him intervening in my life 25 years ago. I am not a perfect person by any means and I struggle, but yet He always hears the prayers of His children. And while He may not answers my prayers when I want them answered, I must rely that He knows what is in my best interest and will answer my prayers in His own oh so perfect timing. While its always nice to vent to family and friends and seek their advice, we must always seek God's first and foremost. He has already given us the advice we need for our lives,  if we will only read His word, place the desires of our hearts before Him and wait on Him to answer our pleadings and hear the oftentimes unspoken desires of our hearts.

I have so much to be thankful for and I look forward to what God has planned for me in the upcoming year. I wish all my family and friends a very happy Thanksgiving and hope that you have had a wonderful time today. Remember always that we have much to be thankful for and I hope that I, along with you, will remember the feelings of thankfulness that were expressed on this one day out of 365 and make an effort to express it in the remaining 364 days.  
  

Morning Workout No. 1

Getting up this morning at 5am wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, granted I was already awake at 4 because I couldn't go to sleep completely. My goal was to get in a 2 mile run in this morning, but the treadmill was not my foe this morning. The belt on the treadmill kept sticking and I've already fallen off a elliptical once and that wasn't a pleasant experience and I don't want to know any time soon how it feels to fly off a treadmill. 

So I  banished myself to the elliptical and there I stayed captive for 23 minutes of a sweat fest, ewww, I know, which was then followed by 30 minutes of leg presses (pushes 190 lbs) whohoo, hip abductions (ouch), chest press and arm dip (gotta get rid of those bingo arms). Needless to say I was sweating bullets. I had tons of energy later this morning and to be honest all throughout the day. I felt like a little tweener dancing and singing to Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Getting Back Together" as I was making my breakfast before work. Here's to another good day tomorrow.

After the workout

Breakfast - Whole Wheat English muffin, egg and veggie sausage

Lunch - Fruit Salad and Ham and Brie Sandwich

Afternoon snack - Strawberry Greek Yogurt 

Morning Workouts

Why are morning workouts so hard? Well we are creatures of habit (good or bad), and well if we are not used to something, we have to change and changing bad habits is not always an easy thing to accomplish successfully. Especially in the fall and winter when its a little chilly at 5am and the thought of emerging from my warm bed is something that would rather not do. But alas, I have an even harder time getting motivated enough to go to the gym after a 9 hour day at the office. So either way it will be a challenge, the thing now is to pick which challenge I want to tackle? 1. Wake up earlier (endorphins keeping me going through out the day) or 2. go to bed later (endorphins keeping me awake and preventing me from sleep)? Decisions, decisions.  Well tomorrow I will be starting a mini experiment on myself, I will usually workout four times in a week, and this week I will try to see what workout time works better for me.  Monday and Wednesday will be morning workouts and Tuesday and Thursday will be evening workouts. Throughout the week I will be checking in and reporting, and with Thanksgiving on Thursday this week will be difficult, but all good things come with some sacrifice and hard work. So here we go, are you ready for this wild crazy road ahead, I'm not sure I'm completely ready, but I have to start somewhere and keep myself going.

Off to bed I go, got a early wake up call, the treadmill is calling my name,eggghhhh. The sound of waking up at 5 tomorrow is revolting, but I gotta do it!!! I'm reluctantly going to bed now, ok maybe in 20 mins, gotta put my workout clothes out, get my water bottle ready and make sure the ipod is fully charged with some good "inspiring" music (i.e. theme from Chariots of Fire), pinky promise.

Back in the game

Guess who is back in the game….ME! Enough is enough, it’s time to be a big girl and gain control over some aspects of my life. I know I am not in complete control of my life in whole, God is, but I guess what I’m want to achieve is a life with a little more structure and order.

School . I need to graduate and it needs to be sooner rather than later. I don’t know what it is about school that makes me dig my heels in the dirt and not get over and done with. I don’t know if it’s because I had a bad experience regarding nursing, a career I was so sure I was ment for. Perhaps it’s my indecision about what I want to be when I grow up, but the sad fact of life is, I am grown up and I need to figure this out.

Organizational skills.  Yea I lack them and they need to honed in, no I need to find them. I enjoy organizing events and parties, those kinds of things, but its cleaning and organizing my personal space that I need work on. Maybe I have lazy tendencies, or maybe I feel like it’s a waste of time because it will get messed up in a matter of days so why even bother.

My weight . I get on my fitness kicks for a couple of months where I will be strict with my diet and dedicated to exercising, but then I will be dormant and not care for about two months. In those two months I will completely reverse any progress I made, which of course will be followed by self-loathing. Why can’t I make my habits stick and why can’t I be 100% dedicated to getting this weight off once and for all.

Instead of wasting even more time, and waiting for New Year’s to make these changes in my life, I’m making a Labor Day resolution. Maybe it’s a more appropriate since it takes a lot of labor and effort to make significant changes in one’s life, so here we go.

School. I will start and FINISH my classes. I will ask for help when needed, will turn off the computer in order to do homework and will leave a room if I cannot concentrate. I will finish what I set out to do, my degree might not be appropriate for my career in the future, but since I do not know what my career will be in the future, or it might be the perfect degree.

Organization. I will start with my closet, then move on to my dresser, and I will finish one load of laundry at a time, put it away, and then move on to the other load. I will make my bed everyday, and will make an attempt to make my bedroom an organizational haven.

Weight. No more sweets in the house, if I want something sweet like candy or ice cream I will have to exert more energy than walking into my kitchen, I will need to go the store to get it. I will go to the gym at least four times a week, for at least 45 minutes, and I will push myself each time I go and remember what I ate that got my weight so unfirmly planted on my arms, thighs, stomach and butt. 

Back in the gym!

Working out hard enough sweat is pouring down your leg = satisfaction

Workout, Doctor's Appointment and Black Bean Soup

Got in another early morning workout at the gym today, even though it ment waking up at 5:30 to do so, I'm glad to get the workout over and done with, especially on a day like today. Today I got out of work, early, woohoo, well not really, as I had an emergency doctor's appointment and it looks like I am going to have need surgery to remove my gallstone and maybe even my gallbladder.

I have been very hesitant and after having four non related surgeries in my 24 years, I didn't want to add another one to the list. But, when you have excruciating pain that comes out of nowhere, with the strength to wake a person up and bring this otherwise tough chick, to a whimpering, wheepy, I think I'm seriously dying right now mess, well then at that point something seriously needs to be done to get this problem fixed, asap. And so I am, yay a whole new set of dietary restrictions that I have to abide by. No wheat products and a low fat diet, it looks like I'm going to lose weight one way or another I guess that's way of looking at my current predicament!

Tonight I made black bean soup for dinner and dole whip, which will not be ready by the time I post, so that will have to wait for another day, but the recipe for mt black bean soup follows.

Heat 2 tbsp of grapeseed oil in a pot, add 1 small chopped onion, scallion and tomato. Saute until soft, about 3 minutes

Stir in 1 tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin and salt

Saute for about 1 minute

Add 30 oz. of black beans (I didn't have enough black beans so I substituted some white northern beans)

Stir in 3 c. of water and 1/2 c. of Pace salsa. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Using a blender, blend 3/4th of the soup until smooth.

Be very careful when blending hot liquid and only fill blender half way, cover the top with a towel just in case there is some splatter.

Mix blended soup back into the pot

*When pouring any liquid, especially when cooking, turn you spoon over and pour directly onto the spoon, this stop you get hot liquid splashed in your face or on your clothes.

Yumm

Ladle into bowl, top with cilantro, pico de gello, cotija cheese, avocado, lime juice, sour cream, salsa, tortilla chips or whatever you like.

Wheat and the 30 Day Shred

I've been MIA for a little bit, due to my health and trying to get some areas of my life in order, but I am back!!

When I was younger, I was given an allergy test and one of the items that I had a reaction to was wheat. Since then I have not had any serious reactions when I have eaten food which contain wheat, that is until about a year ago when I started changing my eating and started eating more whole grain and whole wheat products. When one switches their diet to be more balanced and healthier, one would think that they would begin to feel better, not me, things actually got worse. No matter how healthy I ate, usually whole wheat pasta or a sandwich with whole wheat bread I would feel almost instantly severe pain in my stomach. Well, the wheat allergy that I was diagnosed with as a child had transformed into a complete intolerance of wheat. So what did that mean, no more sourdough, french bread or whole wheat bread, pasta, bagels, tortillas, oatmeal and anything that contained wheat flour, even soy sauce, it's in just about everything!

Over the last year my intolerance to wheat has gotten worse, simply because I have not given up wheat completely.  Not eating things that contain wheat, especially things that I like to eat and have eaten for pretty much the entirety of my life is really hard to do and cut of my diet. But the more research I'm doing on gluten and wheat intolerance coupled with the intense stomach pain I experience, and which seem to be intensifying when I do eat food that contains wheat, I want and have to change my eating completely and remove wheat from my diet all together.

Gluten Free Italian Vegetable Salad - Yummm!

My bestie, Monica and I have started Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred 5 days ago. Prior to starting the workout I had been reading reviews of the dvd on the internet and based on what people had posted, the workout sounded like a pretty intense. Well, I can report to you that it is. In a nutshell the concept of the workout is that it is only 23 mins, but you are constantly moving, most of the time working out two parts of your body at the same time, like arms and legs, or back and legs for 3-2-1 min increments. It was hard, scratch that, it is hard, but it has gotten easier as we have progressed. Monica even has started saying that she now feels like she needs to do the workout each day as it has become part of her routine. With the 30 Day Shred, yes its only 23 mins, but its of 23 mins of sheer intensity, sooooo much sweating and pain, but we get through it. One thing that I've learned since starting this journey to get rid of this unhealthy body is that no matter how fit or fat you are, workout hard, give it your all, it you may not be perfect right now, but working out a little each day, is so much better than not doing anything at all. With time and the effort that you put in, your body will respond, get stronger and your stamina will increase, so get your butt off the couch and get out there, be active and don't make excuses.

Found this in Pinterest - love this, this was me in the past.

     

How to Poached an Egg 101

Tonight's din din is simple and fast cause I don't have a lot of time, this weekend is busy which seems to be a reoccurring phenomenon. I don't like it! Anyways, din din was poached eggs over mixed greens, drizzled with mushroom and sage olive oil.

Now poaching eggs is not as hard as people think, it looks fancy, but its not, are doing is slowing simmering the egg in water, simmering, not boiling. Someone on the Food Network said that you want the water in the pan just like you want you jacuzzi water. Not boiling, but bubbling just a wee bit, ok maybe they didn't say wee, but here's how to make a poached egg.

Fill a medium sauce pan with about 5" of water and bring to a simmer

Crack the egg in a small bowl, be careful to not break the yolk

Gently, very gently, drop the egg in the water

Depending on how you liked your yolk, depends on how long you keep the egg in the water. If you like a running yolk, keep the egg in the water for 3 minutes, but if your are not a fan of the running yolk and like you egg cooked a bit more, go for 5 minutes instead. I happen to like 3 minute eggs.

One minute - the egg white is starting to get a tinge of white.

Two minutes - the egg white is uniformly the same color.

Three minute egg - the entire egg white is now encapsulating the yolk.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the eggs and place on a paper towel to drain excess water.

You can eat poached eggs with toast for breakfast, have them with a salad, maybe with some steamed vegetables like green beans or asparagus. Also try drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, you will not be disappointed.