Champagne wishes and caviar dreams

I’m pre-apologizing.  You’ve been warned.  The randomness that is about to happen is brought to you by a head cold, my daughter’s volleyball schedule, shark week, numerous migraines/headaches, and oh yeah…sometimes I’m lazy.

Robin Leach - Does anyone remember him?  The only reason I posted this picture was because of his show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" which I totally forgot about until I typed the word caviar below.  Yes. I am old. But I'm diggin his vest.

 Looking back at the month of January, I can say with certainty that I was not successful in reaching my goals.  HOWEVER, it was great of me to write them down, they did motivate me to push forward, and while I did fail in all a lot of areas, the failing is a good thing.  It means I tried.

Baby steps. 

The funny thing about the head cold I caught?  My husband said his allergies were acting up.  So the next morning when I woke up with his cat allergies? I stuck my freezing feet between his warm legs.  To thank him.  I’m kidding.  I just gave him the silent treatment because my throat hurt so much.  Come to think of it, he probably enjoyed the silent treatment for a change?

The migraines?  It’s a long story.  I’ve been getting them all my life.  They have, within the last 4-6 months, gotten much worse.  I thought I grew out of that phase? So I’m making a tweak  and getting off my birth control pills, I mean…five kids between the two of us is four too many.  Kidding.  The kid part…not kidding about getting off the pills.  I used them to make life easier, or so I thought, and I thought I could live with the health risks of messing with my hormones because the benefits of being on the pill would outweigh that.  Not so much.  I’m certain the pills were creating more of a problem so I’m going to give my body a chance to readjust and hopefully I’ll be able to get back to the days of being miserable from cramps for a day and  buying stock in Tampax.  I’ll take that any month over being greeted with a migraine and/or headache for  five days in a row.

So looking back at January and what didn’t happen:

• Finish Unlimited by Jillian Michaels. (I made it to Chapter 7!  That's halfway done.)
• Take my multivitamin, daily. (Well, nope.  They sometimes upset my tummy and when I'm feeling all yuck and nauseous, I just don't want to rock the boat.)
• Go to a yoga class at the gym. (Nope, this did not happen.  I did quite a bit of yoga at home though.)
• Move it for 31 minutes...31 days in a row. (Haha nope)

So now for February:

• Track allllll of my food.  (I use Sparkpeople! And by tracking I mean, count my calories and keep it within my range.  Which we can talk about in a separate blog.)
• Exercise 30 minutes for 29 days straight.
• Finish Unlimited - only seven more chapters to go.

My reward? A pair of TOMS ballet flats.  Drool. 

Oh yeah, and I want to lose 8 pounds.  I'm not putting that as part of the "must do" to earn my reward since I figure that if I count my calories and get my exercise streak on, that that right there will help me lose the weight. 

Awkward jump to another random topic.  Begin now. 

Here’s a quick glimpse of my breakfast, Monday through Friday for the last four years.  Ok, maybe I exaggerate.  But I always come back to my oatmeal.  I make it last minute at home and manage to eat it on my way to work.  Doing so is always harder in the winter months when snow and ice is on the road, but then, I’m a rockstar.

Not stirred.  And as gross as this looks, it really is Scrumptious. Mhmm with a capital S.

What’s in the bowl:

40 grams of Old Fashioned oats

.5 oz walnuts

1 T of ground flax seed

1 Packet of Stevia

Couple of dashes of cinnamon

I make up the baggies of oatmeal on Sunday evening so my morning prep is even faster.  I’ve given up on styling my hair now so that gives me another 15 minutes in my morning.  You think I’m kidding.

Recently, I have added chia seeds to my oatmeal.  Detest.  I do not like it when the chia seeds gang up and clump together in a gelatinous wad of (yeah, I said wad) of crunchy goo.  Too many times I caught myself wanting to hurl.  Doing that while driving just wouldn’t be cool.  Plus, I would be late to work.

I have added bee pollen to my oatmeal before as well.  Egg whites.  Fruit, of course. And different kinds of nuts.  Bee pollen, mheh.  Egg whites are fine, but remember, I’m not even brushing my hair these days.  Fruit is good, but I’d have to give up putting on jewelry to manage the time for that.  So the above works for me and keeps me full until snack time at 10am.

PS I wish my work had a mandatory nap time in addition to our lunch our.  Greatest idea EVER!

PPS So when you get sick, do you just dislike talking to everyone?  I do.

PPPS I struggle with little balls of things.  Do you?  Like the chia seeds...not a big fan of poppy seeds. (Someone once told me they were ant heads.  I know now they are not. Still yuck.)  I'm ok with sesame seeds though.  Quinoa can sometimes rub me the wrong way, and you want to know what's grosser than gross?  The little orange ball thingies in some sushi rolls.  They are ok with the whole sushi bite but if you get one stuck in your teeth and then discover it an hour later?  Oh man, clear the deck!  I would not do well with caviar.

What is that orange stuff called?


Hurl.  How much would someone have to pay you to eat that.  I would do it for $20 bucks if you included free mouth wash and floss.