It's October? Excuses, a recipe, and a dog

Wow, time flies.  It's October, Ragtime has come and gone, Joseph... has started, I'm another year older, and I haven't really been running or counting points... I've been teaching and working out!  Just not as much as I would like.  I mostly blame the dog. Sort of. He's far too cute to leave sometimes.

So- August through the beginning of October, I was working on the beautiful and epic musical, Ragtime. I was very excited to play a dream role, Mother, with such a wonderful cast and production with Fiddlehead Theatre.

New Rochelle ladies with out giant hats and wigs

Tateh and Mother. And her giant wig.

Opening

So. The PointsPlus counting has been extremely lazy lately.  I have no excuse.  I know it's easy. I know I can do it, I just have had a hard time.  Mostly, I've been good for a few days in a row and then I'd kind of ruin it for a couple, then back to being good... I admit, I have not been to a meeting in a couple of months and I'm sure that's part of it.  I need to go back. It's been so easy to brush off for a while, though.  The holiday season is coming up, though, and I NEED the stability.  I need the support.  I am going back! (Sadly, next week.  Because this week, I am having a tooth pulled... ick)  But- I have been tracking since Monday.  And I'm feeling good about it.  Thursday will be the test.

Ok- "recipe" time. "Recipe" because I didn't do a whole lot to make this good.

I took a picture of it, but it just looked disgusting.  It was amazing, though!

Tofukey Chorizo and Pumpkin Millet

Millet- 1 cup dry

Water- 3 cups

Pumpkin- 1 can

salt and pepper to taste

Tofurkey Chorizo- 1 package

Onion- 1 large, diced

Red pepper- 1 large, diced

Garlic

Put the millet and water in a large pot and bring it to a boil.  Turn down the heat and let it simmer about 25 minutes.  Add the pumpkin and salt and pepper. 

In a skillet, cook the garlic and onion for a few minutes and then add the pepper.  After about five minutes, add the chorizo.  The spices on the chorizo were so yummy that I didn't add anything.

Serve together... I got about 4 servings out of this. It was amazing. But not attractive.  But amazing.

RUNNING STUFF---

It's been a while. I've been running maybe one a week. And not far. I blame this guy-

Ok. He's not totally to blame. But it's just so hard to leave him sometimes. And he doesn't like running. Not for more than a quarter of a mile. 

We adopted Winston in August.  He's a wonderful addition to our family! But he makes me slightly less productive than I would like to be.

Anyhow- I'm getting over it. Mostly.


More on running- I know I was supposed to run the Salem Wicked Half marathon in September.  It turned out that we had a ten out of twelve rehearsal (10am-10pm with a two hour break) and I wouldn't have made it on time.  Ah well.
BUT- once I have a better idea of what my next year will look like, I will start picking out next year's races and train!

Also- since I last blogged, I started teaching BodyCombat, Tabata, Circuit, and re-started BodyPump.  They're all going well and the different classes keep me busy and entertained.  I definitely prefer this to the 40239420 Zumba classes a week that I used to teach.  I still teach and love Zumba, don't get me wrong.  Now I just teach it 1-2x a week and I enjoy it.

PS- lunch time discovery- frozen Brussels Sprouts are horrid.

Celebrating responsibly

My show opened this past Thursday to some wonderful audiences and compliments! It's called I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.  It's a musical that contains various vignettes about dating and relationships.  It's a lot of fun, a lot of costume changes, and I have to be in a slip in front of everyone.  Eh.  I also have about 10 seconds to run off stage with a folding chair, take off my dress, slip, and shoes, and then throw on a wedding dress, veil, and new shoes without looking in a mirror.

Kevin and I in "Stud and a Babe"

 Because of the wonderful support form the community in Lynn (www.artsafterhours.com), the cast and crew have been going out after the shows to support local businesses that support the theater.  Thursday, we went to Cirque (47 Central) for some karaoke (and an amazing dirty Sapphire martini).  So much fun!  Luckily, I had the points for the martini and a beer. Ok, two.  I ALSO had a hangover the next day.

Kevin and I in the Finale

I was a bit concerned Friday because I felt pretty yucky.  I didn't make it to the gym.  I let myself have a break, but was a worried that this might lead to more breaks.
Friday night after the show- Turbine Wine Bar for a glass of (COUNTED!) wine and some music and then we headed to Tatiana's when some people wanted food (not me).  I kept in mind that I'd signed up for Spin 7:30 Saturday morning and switched to diet coke.


Saturday morning.... 6:45 I was wide awake- five minutes before my alarm.  I had set out my clothes, so I just rolled out of bed, threw them on, put my hair up, washed my face and drove to the gym.  I was pretty tired, but it was a great class!  I even packed a banana so I could eat during the half hour between Spin and BodyPump.

PROOF!

I even added some weight to my squats, back, triceps, and shoulders, bitches!

Saturday night- we went out to Northern Nights in Lynn- SO much fun.  They kept the kitchen open for us!  I had another amazing (counted) dirty Sapphire martini (I earned a TON of points) and danced most of the night (more APs!)


I really just need to remember weekends like this when I'm feeling down or like I want to quit the program.  I had a ton of fun and didn't feel like I was sacrificing anything.  :)  BELIEVE

Non scale victories

So my car has been in the garage again for the past couple of days and I haven't been able to get to the gym. That sounds like the beginning of a long excuse, right? Nope! Even though I've been car-less, I worked out at home.  Luckily, I have my old choreography DVDs from BodyPump and Zumba AND a barbell.

It was actually kind of wonderful to revisit BodyPump 66 yesterday (it's the release I trained on).  I was so proud to make it through that training weekend.  It was probably the hardest thing I've done physically.  If I had known what it would involve, I wouldn't have signed up, honestly.  Three days of crazy weight lifting, techniques, and boot camp craziness.

The Zumba today was partially because I'm going to re-certify and hopefully teach again!  It's surprising how much you can remember once you hear an old song you used to teach.  Looking forward to starting that up again!


One more thing- I signed up for Spin for Hope.  It's a three hour spin ride on March 4th for the American Cancer Society.  Please consider a donation if you are able!  My mother and grandfather are cancer survivors, so the cause is close to my family and heart. (actually this is where the car thing becomes a pain- I thought "I'll take a few spin classes a week to train. Sadly, I do not have a spin bike at home)

Plateaus...?

This is my sixth week back on plan going to Weight Watchers meetings.  I'm very happy with my progress so far, but this is when it starts to slow down a bit for me.  As long as there is a loss, I know I shouldn't complain. And I know that losing at a slow and steady pace is better, but wow I'm impatient.

I want to concentrate on making positive changes and not slipping back into old ways instead of concentrating on the number on the scale.

I've been doing Weight Watchers on and off for a very long time... maybe 10 years or so?  I am going to make sure I measure everything I eat and cook.  I can probably estimate a cup of something by eyeing it, but I am going measure when I can (at restaurants, sometimes you have to give it your best guess) and that means EVERYTHING at home.

Get to the gym. I have the time, I have the membership.  I went six days last week. That exceeded my goal of five days and it was great!  I tried a new class- Total Body conditioning.  I am totally a Les Mills BobyPump fan, but while I'm in a show, I can't make it to the Thursday night class, and my goal right now is to get three days of a full body weight work out in every week.  It was great to switch up the routine!  SO many squats... I also made it to a super popular Saturday morning Spin class.  I signed up 8 minutes after the online reservations started and was put on the waiting list. Yep. Luckily, I got bumped up.  Getting a spot was motivation to get up early on Saturday and head in.  So glad I did.

I've restarted a 5K running program.  I have an iPhone app that I'm pretty sure used to be the C25K, but changed to "Ease into 5K".  It gets the job done.  This time, I'm pledge to do each workout.  In the past, I've skipped weeks or stopped part way through and then just started running as long as I could a slower speed.  I really want to build up to a better speed this time, so I'm pushing myself to run faster than I'm used to on the running intervals.

I'm trying to avoid sleeping in so I can get to the gym in the morning and then eat breakfast.  It's bad to skip and sleeping in feels like such a waste of a day.  I guess I should also try to get to bed earlier...

I want to try a new recipe every week.  Or a new ingredient.  Last year when I went vegan, I did this and discovered some amazing new healthy food.  This week, I think I'm going with a Lentil Soup from The Kind Diet (links to blog).  Also- my local Market Basket (while I still find it to be hell on earth to get through) has some pretty amazing produce.  Last week, I got Shanghai Tips (they're sort of like tiny baby bok choy) and Thai Chili (dear god, they are effing hot). Oh, also lotus roots- still need to do something with those.

Oh- as always- I need to make sure I drink more water.



I'm hoping these things motivate me to keep going and stay positive!  Also- I need to take more pictures for this blog. You know, the one that no one knows about.