Some yummy creations

So I have made 2 of the 16 meals and I am so excited about it. In recap one of my 30 things is to make 2 new meals a month just to improve my culinary skills and to broaden my food horizon. Here are the two new meals I prepared and they both received 2 big thumbs up.



Wilted Spinach Salad with Candied Pepper Bacon

• 4 slices thick-cut bacon
• 1 tbsp packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 package of fresh baby spinach
• 1 medium Granny Smith apple, cored & sliced into thin wedges
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion wedges
• 2 hard cooked eggs

For the home made dressing

• 1 tsp reserved drippings from bacon
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard (I used Honey Dijon Mustard)

All you have to do is put the bacon in a pan, spread it out, sprinkle pepper evenly and then add the brown sugar. Cook in the microwave for 3-5 minutes or you can put it in the oven. Once done, cut the bacon into pieces, add to spinach, cut the hard boiled egg, add onion & the slices of apple. For the dressing, add all ingredients from above and microwave on HIGH for 2 minutes or until bubbly (for me it took less than 45 sec). Mix dressing with salad and ENJOY!!! I tell you, it was so delish.

The next recipe made was from http://www.allrecipes.com/ called

Spaghetti a la Philly
1 pound of lean ground beef or turkey
1 package of spinach
4 oz of Philly cream cheese
24 oz of spaghetti sauce
1/2 onion
1 tsp Parmesan cheese
seasoning (optional)


Cook spaghetti as directed on the box, cook ground beef/turkey until brown. Drain fat and place in bowl. In pan cook spaghetti sauce and Philly cream cheese until well blended (can take anywhere from 5-10 mins) and with another pan sauceed spinach and onion. On plate add spaghetti, ground beef, seasoning, spinach, onion and add the awesome creamy sauce and top with Parmesan cheese. I tell you, it was yummy. I do not think the picture quite captured it, but my belly loved me for days.

So if your bored, or curious try out these two new recipes. I am even thinking that I will make more than 2 new meals a month, I am loving cooking. Until next time.....

The ever awesome update :)

Well, life is actually looking really good right now. I am feeling good about things and getting some items crossed off my list, with the help of some great people. So here is my recap.

I ran for 45 mins nonstop on Friday 4/23. I don't know what got into me, but I did and it was so awesome. I listened to my dear friend Kara and instead of going for speed I went for distance and so ranging from 4.0-5.6mph I did it. I am so proud of myself. Thanks to Caleb I made special note to stretch before and afterwards so big thanks to my thinkers :) I am feeling really good about this 1/2 marathon and I am getting so pumped for it. Running is so rewarding and freeing that I can't believe that I stopped for so long.

Monday was my weigh in day and I dropped 1.4 pounds. Yay :) So I need to lose an additional 17.2lbs. I sometimes get upset that the results are going so slow, but I do know that it is better to lose slowly than to lose a great deal fast and then put it back on after the diet. Thankfully I am not dieting, just monitoring portion sizes at times. I am happy that my clothes are fitting much better and for some of the clothing I can't wear it because it is super baggy. Which is leading me to wait a bit longer on fulfilling my wardrobe goal because what is the point of buying clothes now when in a month or two they will be too big.

I think that the real reason for my weight loss is because of the massive amount of time I am spending working out. This week though I am doing a little experiment where I am only working out for 80-90 mins. For some that may be a regular workout but for me that is nothing compared to the 115-140 mins four day a week work outs I am used to. So as for losing weight and training for the 1/2 marathon I am making some great progress. Today I will see if I can replicate the 45 min run and maybe even motivate myself to run longer.

On Sunday, Caleb and I went to the Cincinnati Museum Center where Asian Fest was going on. We sat in and heard the history and sounds of the Shaku hachi (Japanese Flute), we also got to watch and hear the songs of a Taiwan dance celebration, see beautiful artwork of the city and clothing/jewerly. While at the museum we also toured the Cincinnati History and Museum of Natural History & Science exhibits. It was such a wonderful day and the company was just awesome :) So now I have 2 more cultural events to attend. I am already thinking of a couple more so this is truly exciting.

My Greek Mythology book is just about finished. I have 24 pages left so I will most likely finish it this afternoon or tonight. So that makes me happy to be able to move on to another book. I am debating between Eat, Pray, Love or The Lucifer Effect. I may go with the first book considering that its pages are shorter. (That's not cheating...right?).

Well so far that seems to be all on my accomplishments for today. I feel like I should have more but what I have done and continue to do so far is good enough. I can not believe that this month has went by as fast as it has.

Well, until I write in you again......

Still going strong...

Well, where to start?!?! I am in a good space right now, even though this morning I was none too happy.

Today being my weigh in day was not so happy :( Today I gained 0.2 lbs. which puts me at needing to lose 18.6 lbs. I know what you may be thinking, it is only 0.2lbs but it is things like that which can totally make me want to quit. I have been reflecting what I did, and I just came up with the fact that all of my eating out these past 2 plus months has finally caught up with me. So I am being more conscious of what I am eating and my snacking. I will go back to eating serving sizes, and hopefully next week is a better number.

On to some positives, I have accomplished a lot doing this list. I have signed up for an art class. It is from Baker's Hunt school and it is a Gardening Workshop called "Leaf Sand Casting". It is only for 2 hours and $30 which is much cheaper than the $80 I budgeted. It is in August so today I am sending in my registration form. Yeah!! I am so very excited.

I started learning Spanish over the weekend. As a good student I started with the basics, and so I focused on the greetings. I can only say hello, good night, and how are you proficiently. (Well with the American accent). I could move on, but I will stay on lesson 1 until I can say everything else with ease and consistently.

I also put $50 in savings :) That increases my total saved to $208.97 and hopefully I can put some more money in when I get paid next week.

I have already looked into what new meal I am going to cook and super excited for that. If I don't do it this week I have to do it next week. Gotta keep my 2 new dishes quota.

This weekend I traveled to Jungle Jims and bought three bottles of wine, Dr. L my favorite being one. I decided for my wine bar that each wine holder section will be a type of wine. I am thinking that is the best way to do it. At first I was just going to have all Rieslings but I can throw in some reds. So here is the breakdown, I will purchase 3 of each:
Riesling (2)
Merlot (2)
Chardonnay (0)
Pinot Noir (0)
Pinot Grigio (1)
So I need 10 more. I am not looking for really expensive or cheap stuff. I am buying the things I like, but since I am not a big wine drinker if it is not a Riesling, I am taking a big chance and hoping that it is good. Granted I will not be drinking the stuff for a while but I still don't want to buy crappy wine.

I have made slim progress on my reading. Don't get me wrong the mythology book is great, I just am needing more discipline to fit it in. With working and working out I am pulling in long days and the last thing on my mind is reading. I just gotta get better at it because I really want to read one book a month and this month is slipping away.

I am also making slim progress on my doctoral portofolio. Today I read what I need to do to complete it and I printed out some papers but I am doing the bare minimum. I will step it up a notch. I really want to have it complete by the end of Summer so that I can start the disseration phase by Fall. Maybe I need to make a daily schedule and add it in for at least 60 minutes a day. If I can dedicate 4 days a week at 2 hours or more a session to working out, I should be able to tackle this portfolio.

As for my training for the marathon, I am saving the best for last. I have dramatically improved that I am in total shock. But I have ran before so I didn't think it would take me a large amount of time to get back in the flow of things. With having five more months and a week til the race I am feeling very confident. As of yesterday I am able to run nonstop for 18 minutes. My training program said I should be able to run at least 30 minutes so I am more than half way there. Also I also ran a mile non stop. Originally on Friday I ran a mile in 12:30minutes, and yesterday I did it in 11:18minutes-go me. I told myself that the running does not have to be at a steady 5.6 miles per hour which is what hindered me. I want to stay consistent at a 5.6 mph or more, but I also don't want to over do it considering that I am getting back into the swing of things. Anyway, I feel that I can just be happy that I did it, that I am staying focused and getting better the more I train.

Well I guess that is all for today. I continue to write in this blog weekly so I am making progress on that item. Hopefully by next week I will have made additional steps on another item.

Feeling good for now

So I am feeling pretty good right now. I am making some real progress on my list. First I have been reading a Greek & Roman mythology book for pleasure. I can not even remember the last time I read a book for pleasure, or actually the last time I read a book. It is actually taking me quite some time to read it but I am slowly getting through it. Really, as long as I read one book a month I am on target.

This morning, I put aside $25 for savings, for a total saved of $158.97. I need $341.03 more to complete one of my 30. Hopefully I can put more in this week, but since I am paying more on my credit cards, the savings accumulation will be pretty small amounts initially. But hey, at least my total is a lot better than nothing.

I weigh myself every Monday and before I started this 8 month plan I have already lost 16 pounds because I gave up being lazy for Lent. Which for me was giving up watching hours of Law & Order every day. I think I went from 4 or more episodes a night to just 1 then going to work out from 8-10pm. It was hard at first giving up being lazy. It is so relaxing coming home after work, hanging with my doggie and vegging out and watching tv.

But I gave it up (not the true meaning of Lent-I know), but being lazy did hold me back and had a stranglehold on me. So, now I am going to the gym 4 days a week for roughly 100 minutes (or more depending on how good the movie in the Cardio Cinema is). I am feeling healthy and I really love working out and how it makes me feel. Also there are some hot guys there so my visual stimulation is pretty much working overtime lol. Anyways in the 40 days I lost about 15 pounds so I am pretty proud of myself. And on my list before my 30th I want to lose 20 more. I really want to lose more than that, but I figured 20 is feasible given my time frame.

So as of this week, I lost 1.6 pounds giving me 18.4 more to lose. Yay :) I am very happy and I hope that at this rate I surpass my 20, but I won't get cocky. I will be realistic. I really want to get back down to my original size of 145lbs but as long as I am in my healthy range and back to my size 8 I will be pleased.

In addition this week I tackled number 9 and took a chance by initiating a Saturday outing with a male friend. I told myself even if he says no, at least I tried right?!?!? Well we hung out last week so I figured sometimes it is okay for a girl to be assertive if she sees something that she wants. Anyways, I got a good sign yesterday from him and hopefully we will finalize the plans today or tomorrow but whatever happens I am just glad that I am taking my list seriously and that I am feeling accomplished. Granted this does not mean that I will cross number 9 off my list as complete, I will continue to take more chances maybe even raise the stakes :)

Another thing on my list I am making headway on is updating my wardrobe. I bought the cutest top from Old Navy that is a pretty spring and summer shirt. In the fall I could wear it over long sleeves and I brought some nice pair of capris. Granted with the weight I am losing they are not fitting as nice as I would hope. But, 1 outfit down, 9 more to buy. I also know that I will do some major clothing shopping in Atlantic City and California so I should be fine with this goal.

In reflection, the only thing about my list that is bothering me is that I have decided to do so many things that even though they are cool and what I want to do, it is expensive given my time frame. I think in my quick estimation of the list, I am looking at almost $5,000 worth of activities. ~Oh my~ I think only a handful of my 30 things are free (i.e. reading books, doctoral portfolio, sunset on the beach, etc). But given my determination to do these things I will make it happen. Or start a fundraiser lol.

Well I guess that is all, I will update whenever I have something new to add, or for my required once a week update whichever is first. Until then.......

Can I be ready by 9/26?

Well, today was my day at the gym to really see if I have what it takes to run a 1/2 marathon. The end result.... keep reading.

Last Thursday I researched online what a beginner runner have to do in order to be prepared for a 1/2 marathon. Many of the things I read gave me a 10 week training guide. Cool right...wrong. The stipulation of the ten week training was that the individual had to have been running for at least 4-6 weeks and at least 30 minutes non-stop. Yeah, that is the same thing I was thinking.

I used to run, to keep my stress down and for the love of it, especially when I lived in Oakley and let's face it, that was over 2 years ago and I was possibly 30 or more pounds lighter. But I decided last Thursday that I would go to the gym and see how much I can run before I had to stop. I ran 3 minutes at 5.6 mph before I stopped, jumped off the treadmill and immediately sat on the floor to pretend to do stretches, but on the inside I was nauseous and starving but at that point I had no desire to eat at all.

While on the floor trying to not pass out I quickly took inventory of my day: I worked, ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast and then lunch, and when I got home at 7:30pm I walked Buddy, had a cup of pineapples, went to the gym, got on the elliptical for 73 minutes, then I decided to see how long I can run w/o stopping. Oh and I did not drink a lick of water the entire time I was working out. NO wonder I couldn't do it for long and I felt like dying. And a wise person said that my workout could have been a "Very Special Episode" in any silly comedy show like Full House or Saved by the Bell (I was compared to the episode of Full House when DJ worked out so much and stopped eating and during one of her workouts passed out--thankfully that did not happen to me but it was a scare).

But today was a better day. I had a decently carb fill breakfast, I let it digest, I still got on the elliptical but this time for 40 minutes, during which I kept hydrated and then I ran on the treadmill. At first I could only run at 5.6mph for 4 minutes, then after walking for a bit I tried again and this time over 6 minutes. :) I am so proud of myself. Then I went on to do 33 more minutes on the elliptical and I did some strength training. I am feeling good.

Now I wonder, can I be ready for my 1/2 marathon run in Oxford by September 26? Considering that I have a little more than 20 weeks to train and I'm so determined, I say: GAME ON :)

8 months to go...

So this is my first posting on my blog and it feels kinda weird. I mean, I keep a book journal of my thoughts and let's face it, I don't even write in that everyday or very often and it's personal. With this, I feel like I will be opening myself up and being pretty vulnerable and if anyone knows me, I am not a fan of that. But I am opening up, trying new things and recapping on the end of an era, being in my 20's and the beginning of another, embracing my 30's and God willing experiencing more.

On April 3, the best idea came to my friend and like a good friend, I am borrowing it and making it my own :) In celebration of leaving my 20's behind and transitioning into my 30's (oh my) I have come up with a list of 30 things to do before I turn 30. Today was the best day to make my list official because I have exactly 8 months to get all of this accomplished. I feel that this is enough time to get this done. So the purpose of this blog is several things actually. One, to mark something off my list (kinda feel like that was cheating but what ever), two, to post all of my crazy times, and three to express myself in a different forum. This journey will be a good one and I am so excited to be on this path. Without further pause, here are my 30 things:

1. Be a vegetarian for one week
2. Train and participate in a 1/2 marathon
3. Go hiking
4. Go camping
5. Visit a different state (I have only been to 15 so far and 4 different countries)
6. Upgrade my wardrobe (which means buy at least 10 new outfits)
7. Get a cookbook and cook a new dish at least twice a month
8. Learn a different language (the debate is between Spanish and Sign language)
9. Take chances (don't let my anxiety take over!!)
10. Drop at least 20 pounds
11. Save at least $500
12. Pay off at least 3 credit cards
13. Switch my license, my plates and my tags to Kentucky
14. Start a blog and write in it weekly
15. Stock my wine bar
16. Finish decorating my house
17. Go to an away sports game
18. Read at least 8 new books
19. Have a total spa day (full body massage, mani, pedi and hair)
20. Visit/take part in at least 3 cultural events
21. Take a tour of a winery
22. Take a road trip preferably to some place new
23. Finish my doctoral portfolio
24. Buy my birthstone jewel either as a necklace, ring or bracelet
25. Take an art class
26. Make something, be it a pillow, a quilt, I just got to get creative
27. Watch the sunset on the beach
28. Do one crazy thing-to be determined later
29. Take my grandma to lunch or dinner
30. Let the people in my life know how much I care about them

So those are my 30 things to do. I feel that by accomplishing the above, I will feel so well rounded and just awesome. These are just the beginning of my thoughts and the wrap up of a fantastic decade of living. Thanks for reading and wish me luck :P