13. Here is a graph of the year I've spent in WeightWatchers. My weight loss has slowed quite a bit. Of course, I don't know how much less I'm willing to eat, so maybe I'll just need to be happy where I am.
12. Sunday, I made Green Chile Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas. This is one of those ubiquitous dishes in New Mexico, kind of like lasagna, that is hard to screw up. The basic ingredients for mine are:
12 corn tortillas, torn into fourths
.75 cups shredded pepper jack cheese
.75 cups shredded nonfat cheddar
6 to 8 shredded, cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts (not like with a shredder, but just pulled apart.)
a can of green enchilada sauce,
4 small cans of green chile (or fresh frozen roasted chile, if you can get it)
1 can healthy request cream of chicken soup
1 cup. non-fat sour cream
1 can black beans
1 can of black sliced olives, if you want them.
So. I mix the black beans, olives, and the green chile together in one bowl, sour cream and chicken soup in another bowl, and then layer it in a crockpot like this:
1/4 of the enchilada sauce
1/4 of the torn tortillas
1/4 of the chile/black bean mixture
1/4 of the chicken
1/4 of the sour cream/soup mixture
1/4 of the cheese
and so on, all the way up to the top. Cook on low about, oh, 4 hours. Not too much more or it gets gooey. Still tastes good, though. Sweet Baboo loves me just a little bit more when I make this stuff. If I screwed it up, just ask. Don't scream.
11. Sweet Baboo has worked out another training plan for me, starting after Rocky, which is in less than two weeks TWO WEEKS and it builds up to the May of Insanity, which involves two back-to-back marathons, two weekends in a row, and then two weeks later a 50K, and then what may possibly be the Big Horn 50K in June (maybe).
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| My fantasy garden. These are all low-water plants. |
9. Another big goal is to take out most or all of the grass in the front yard. It's ridiculous to have grass in a place that gets 9 inches of rain a year. Plus, it has to be mowed. I'm planning to take out the grass and put in xeriscaping.
I grew up in the south. Lawns are boring.
Not having an oven, by the way, removes you from the obligation of providing large-scale dinners all by yourself. I mean, you can't cook a turkey in a toaster oven, right? (Although for two, you can cook a very nice turkey breast).
7. I found out that some of my textbooks are worth money through Amazon's textbook buy-back program, so sold them back and I'm ordering some new cookbooks, to give me ideas.Once I've gotten some good ideas out of them, then I usually sell them back and make up my own recipes.
6. This past week, Sweet Baboo was listening to a training CD on treating anxiety disorders. I overheard the woman on the tape talk about how anxiety-provoking it was to be in the lunch room, because you could drop the tray and then everyone would look at you, or laugh at you.
Pfft. Really? Really? That's where you go to? Lightweight. There are WAY more horrible things that could happen to you from dropping your tray.
- The fork could fly up and hit you in the eye.
- Some acid-based food item could hit you in the eye. Or salt.
- You could slip on something from the tray and fall, breaking your coccyx.
- You could ruin all your food and not have anything to eat for the rest of the day.
- You could break some dishes and be required to pay for it.
- You could slip and fall and cut your wrist, bleeding to death.
Of course, when I shared this with Sweet Baboo he thought it was a hoot. The rest of you: Bow before me. I am the QUEEN of anxiety.
I figure as long as I can laugh about it, I'm doing okay.
7. Also planning on using my slow cooker more often. I'm getting a timer for it since I'm gone 10 hours a day, usually. I'm selling all my old vegan cookbooks as a lot on ebay. Most of them rely pretty heavily on soy, which you're not supposed to eat if you have an impaired thyroid.
5. I'll be doing three 16 and 2/3 mile loops. My goal is to finish it in under 14 hours. 12 hours is my fantasy goal. I figure the first two laps are daylight, and the last one it might be getting dark. So at night I'll need a headlamp, and maybe a clean, dry, l/s shirt. The big challenge is going to be the roots. I was told by JJ, who accompanied me to the finish at Ghost Town, that it used to be a much nicer course but the mountain bikers have just torn it up. Lots of erosion, and the result is lots of exposed roots. 4. Monday was the night. THE night. It was the night I went to class, and saw people I haven't seen in nearly a year. Again, I got the comments about the lost weight. I never get tired of that! And again, I got one whispered, sidelong comment, You're okay, right? You haven't been sick? I like that one too. No, I haven't had chemotherapy. No, I don't have a wasting disease.
3. There are hints of spring in the air. Okay, maybe not in the air, that's just wishful thinking. But the days are getting longer. Totally stoked. Soon, I'll be able to run more in the evenings. I don't know what it is about the dark and cold, but I hate running in it. I'll run in the dark, and maybe in the cold, but cold + dark, well, no.
2. Mailbag: No, I haven't considered a wheat allergy. I'm wary of that but not closed-minded. My asthma was fully under control until I (twice in a row) took 12-hour sudafed before laying down to sleep. I think that did something to me starting with stuff building up in my chest over night, not moving out. I think I had some inflammation in my airway. But it seems to be clearing up. Also, I think that since our winter has been extra dry, that is a problem. So I've started humidifying the air, and that's helped, too.
