I'm thinking I should just move my weigh in day to Sunday, seeing as I always get too busy on Saturday to do much of anything in the online world.

Anyhow, I weighed in at 211.5 today. That's a gain of a pound and a half. THat's okay by mue. Weight fluctuations, mayb e I did something a little bit wrong that I shouldn't have, maybe I didn't walk enough, drink enough water. Etc. It's alright and I can get over it and do better this week.

Now that I have a job, the roommate and I were looking at gyms to join. We found a really fantastic one that is not only huge, offers lots of nice classes, is open all the time, has amazing equipment AND a really nice staff...But is super afforadable! So, once I get paid and I can afford some gym clothes and the membership fee, I'll be signing up and going!

My new job iiis..Line cook! Yep, I'm cooking for a living, at a real restaurant now. I'm really, really excited and so far I like most of the people there. I also like I'm allowed to dye my hair whatever color I want and get tattoos, something that wasn't allowed at my old job. I held off on dying my hair until I got a new job, just to make sure I could actually GET a job and to make sure it was alright with the company or the owner.

The place is within walking distance, so yep. You got it. I walk to work everyday. It's a mile there and a mile back, if I walk back. I won't be walking back after sunset and I won't be walking in the dead of winter, I hope.

Also, I was considering doing that Special K challenge thing. I'm not sure I'm expecting it to do much of anything for me, really. I don't have high hopes for it. But I do love the cereal and the bars, and I would like an excuse to eat that cereal all the time. My roommate said she'd chip in for the prices of everything if she could share the cereal; she loves it, too.

Tha's all from me!~

I GOT A JOB.

So, my roommate asked me what I'm planning on doing to help myself lose weight since I can't go to a gym right now. Of course she said this was aside from not shoveling all the food I see in front of me down my throat. Sure, that's helped, but there are also other things I've been doing.

Surprisingly, keeping up on the chores has made me feel like I'm doing something at least mildly active. I take care of two of the three stories of my household, so there's a lot of running up and down the stairs to do cleaning. Vaccuuming involves bringing the vaccuum up all three flights of stairs and then bringing it back down again, dusting involves the same, since I share a can with my dad. I'm basically running like around at least three times a week trying to get things done.

Other things? I've cut down my soda to one can/serving per day, MAX. I'm trying to make this three per week (max), but I love soda so this is difficult. Once I get through the caffeinated stuff, I'm going to make it strictly be non-caffeinated sodas. I don't drink diet, however, because the aspartame makes me a little whoogey, I've noticed. I will drink the diet sodas made with sucralose, though. The reason I'm sticking to non-caffeinated is because the caffeine in soda (and coffee) makes me horribly ill. Really. REally. Ill. My other drinks consist of flavored and plain water (sucralose preferred, but they don't have enough aspartame to set me off if they have the dreaded stuff), unsweetened and sweetened (with sucralose) teas, and decaf coffee sweetened with sucralose or creamer (I love those sugary sweet creamers, so that's a bunch of calories, but frankly I barely ever drink coffee, so I don't think this is a bad thing).

I've cut down on my friends foods to just light pan frying. French fries make me ill unless they're oven baked, and so do onion rings. My stomach's really become sensitive to oil and grease, so if I pump the amount into it that I used to, I end up nauseas. This is pretty helpful in making me stay away from the stuff.

My favorite flavored waters are:
Propel (only have had the berry flavor so far, but it's awesome...AND made with sucralose!)
Lipton Peach Green Tea (when fresh, it doesn't clump so much, but when it's not...uuugh. Also sucralose)
Lipton Green Tea (same)
Lipton Iced Tea (same)
Wyler's Light Ice Raspberry (Aspartame, but it tastes great despite that nasty sweetener.)
Wyler's Light Pink Lemonade (Asperame, etc.)
That one grapefruit one I can't find anymore. It was made with aspartame, but it tasted exactly like grapefruit juice! It was AWESOME. However, I couldn't drink it on an empty stomach. The only time I did, I ended up vomitting from the overdose of acid.

I did weigh in today, because it's a Saturday. I'm going to be weighing in every week and I WILL be posting here every Saturday. I know, I know. I say it all the time. I say a lot of pretty things all the time. But I've put reminders on my phone AND on my calender so that I won't forget.

My current weight?
210lbs EVEN.

Awesome! I've never been so happy to see 210 on the scale before. Why? Because I capped out around 215 when I was on that depressed binge of mine and seeing a 210 is fantastic. That's five pounds I no longer have and I hope soon that I can take another five pounds off.

So, now that I'm feeling much better, I've also been doing much better! The chores are getting done, my eating has gotten better and I even started cooking dinner again. The roommate stopped bringing dinner home from work at my request, and also at her realization at how hideously bad the food there is and we've stopped eating fast food so much. I've made dinner for the past few days and I'm trying to figure out what to make tonight when she gets home from work.

As per suggestion, I haven't been weighing myself lately. I've just been trying to get everything under control. I did measure myself recently, though, because I was looknig at clothing on Bodyline. I need a blouse to go with the JSK I just recently finished. Though I really should have taken it in, because I initially made it a year ago. I just finished by putting trim on it.

My measurements are as follows: 44'' bust, 40'' waist, and 50'' hips. I lost an inch off my waist and my hips, which is pretty awesome! I can also fit in the larger sizes at Bodyline, which is also pretty awesome.

Over a week. Why is that? Honestly, I'm surprised I even got out of bed today. Emotionally, I've been a complete and total wreck. My eating has been...interesting. Some days, I don't eat anything. Other days, all I eat are my comfort foods, but I don't go overboard. Yesterday, I happily ate everything and anything offered tome and it didn't make me physically feel any different before or after I ate any of it.

Yesterday involved me eating a few snack bags of..whatever N threw at me in the car. And then the trip to McDonald's where M bought me just about anything I wanted that could be afforded. And then I came home and had bread and peanut butter.

And today, I've had bread and peanut butter. Though I managed to stop at three slices of bread and two servings of the peanut butter. So, I guess that's a step in the right direction. Emotionally, I'm still wrecked. But I'm trying really hard to keep myself in check and not wreck up myself physically.

Oh look at this. I was doing so well! Well, it couldn't really last, could it? Haha. No, really. I should work on keeping this up more often.

So, I did not weigh myself this week. I frankly kind of really forgot. I did weigh last week and came in at 214. Fantastic.

Really. Amazing.

Uh-huh.

I can attribute this to a few things. I've been eating a good amount of fast food lately, and I need to stop it. Also, my roommate has been bringing leftovers from work almost daily. She always brings a full portion that we share, so at least it's not a full portion I eat myself. Thank god, however, that they introduced a new under 500 cal per meal line. She says she'll be bringing that for us to share from now on. It's salmon with vegetables and it's delicious. To top it off, however, I haven't been doing any exercise aside from cleaning. Hopefully, this can change soon, since my top to bottom clean of the house is over. I'm just too exhausted mentally and physically to do much else after I've been cleaning that much.

Well, the game room is still a wreck, which means my cleaning isn't over. I need to clean that room, anyway, if I want to work out, so I guess it'll get done soon after I relax a bit from all of the cleaning and running up and down the stairs I've been doing thanks to do. Also, hopefully, I'll have a new job soon and that'll also get me off my butt all day.

Astrid's Recipe Corner 1

So, I realized that I really like blogs that feature recipes that are either plain delicious, cheap, healthy...or all of the above!

I thought maybe I could have my own recipe corner of recipes that I think fall into all of those categories. Some of them start from prepackeged things because, frankly, those can be pretty cheap for a decent amount of nutritional value that won't plain kill you.

Today, we've got a two meals in one package.

I picked up a Knorr's Sides Plus a few months back, but never got around to making it. It's the brocolli rotini version with spinach and olive oil. I mainly picked this up for a few reasons. One- It was cheap. About a dollar and it has two heaping servings in it. Two- It has vegetables in it and not only that, it has SPINACH. And I love me some spinach. Three- The nutritional information was reasonable.

For example, here we go:
in one serving ( 3/4 of a cup) as prepared
Calories: 320
Total Fat: 3g
Sat Fat 0.5g
Cholesterol: 0
Sodium: 710mg
Carbs: 47g
Fiber: 4g
Sugar: 3g
Protein: 10g

Not bad for a prepackaged side, right? Well, it is a side. But I'm kind of poor and I see "One dollar for that package? Why! That's two meals! For fifty cents each!" And this made my day, of course.

But here's the thing. Is there any way to make it better? Sure there is.

So, I prepared the side according to package directions, including using the olive oil. Don't waste your good virgin or extra virgin olive oil on this! This is cooking with it and that oil you paid so much for will lose all of the subtle flavors that make it so expensive. Just go for your normal olive oil. It still tastes great, is still heart healthy, and is cheaper than the virgin and extra virgin oils.

I cut up two plum (roma) tomatoes and threw them in after seeding them. But what else? Well, add in a can of tuna! In water, not oil!

And what do you end up getting in the same serving?

Calories: 392
Total Fat: 3.5g
Sat Fat 0.5g
Cholesterol: 25mg
Sodium: 960mg
Carbs: 47g
Fiber: 4g
Sugar: 3g
Protein: 21g

For barely any extra calories, fat, and sodium, you get a lot more protein in one serving. And what do you do with the other serving?

Eat it later!

And trust me., it tastes awesome.

Don't like tomatoes? Add any other vegetable you like! Just make sure to give it ample time to cook in the boiling water BEFORE adding in the pasta, seasoning, and tuna. Don't like tuna? Add chunk chicken or turkey, salmon or crab. The nutritional information will change, of course, but it's hard to make this all that bad for you.

----

Liked it? Hated it? Want me to never post these again or keep posting one every week?

What's this? A post before Saturday (or after that post is late)? Yes, really!

I walked today for about a half hour. That isn't a lot, I know, but it's a lot more than I have been walking lately. At least outside the setting of a mall, anyway. I walked my friend to the halfway point before her busstop. Maybe next time I'll actually make it the whole way there before knowuing I'll have to turn back. I just didn't want to wear myself out before I even got back home. I think next time I'll try and get to the three fourth's mark. She offers me lunch, which comes with an ice cold water, and that's incentive enough to walk in this heat for me! Plus, I like walking around with her. It reminds me of being back in Illinois when we had no car and had to walk everywhere.

I'm mostly just hoping I can keep this up, along with all of the DDR I've been playing, and that it'll start to make a difference. Of course, I'm also trying to watch my eating as much as possible. I won't lie and tell you I don't eat fast food or that I don't eat sweets. I do. I especially eat quite a bit of fast food because I don't have my own money at the moment and my friends buy me some food when we go out shopping or just hanging out. Of course, I try to make the best option possible of the cheapest options on the menu.

I'm hoping it's nice like this tomorrow. It wasn't too warm out and that's what has been stopping from walking too much lately. I'm afraid of getitng dizzy and passing out, as has happened to me before. If it's nice like this, then I'll definitely be walking downtown tomorrow with my roommate. We need to get her a monthly bus pass to make taking the bus to work cheaper for her. We were also going to look at the small stores downtown and check out the museums and see if any had cheap addmissions we could afford for another day.

This Saturday, if today was any indication, there should be a post from me! Hopefully we'll see a number under 213.

Late again! Per usual.

I'm back up, and not only that, but I'm at 213lbs this week. I don't know what I managed to do here. I've been working out, I haven't been eating that badly, and I've not been sitting around all day. I don't know what it is I'm doing wrong or what I'm just plain not doing? I've been keeping up with my SparkPeople and everything. I haven't gone over on calories or fat or carbs or anything I can think of.

Maybe my body's just getting used to being taken care of right again. I'll keep think of it that way for a few more weeks and if nothing gets better, then I'm definitely going to have to change my approach. The thing is that I haven't felt any bigger lately, but instead have felt lighter and better about myself. I didn't take any measurements last week or this week because I plan on changing that to measurements every month.

On Saturday, I spent the day in Providence walking around for a few hours. It was pretty fun, getting to window shop in the Providence Place Mall. Maybe next time I go, I'll actually be able to buy something. I saw a beautiful tea set in the Teavana that I want for my parlour when I move into my own home. It was a gorgeous china teaset painted with light pink roses. It was a pot with four cups and matching saucers. So pretty! But it was $100. I'm fully willing to pay that much for my dream tea set! When I actually have the money.

I saw a lot of clothing I could modify into casual lolita clothing and I'm hoping to go back with some money and buy them. The modifications would be simple and really inexpensive and then I'd have quite a few cutsews in my wardrobe.

This weekend, on my roommate's day off, we plan on heading into the downtown and shopping around the small boutiques and shops there. When I say shopping, I mean looking around and not buying anything. There are few antique stores down there that specialize in Victorian antiques and I can't wait to look through them and get a better visualization of what I want for our house when we finally move. Hopefully I can get a job soon because that'll bring that house that much closer to me.

I hope I'll remember to post again in a few days, or at least post on time on Saturday with my, hopefully, updated lighter weight!