I did indeed use cashews in my soup, which gave it a nice creamy texture and fatted it up a bit. But the weather hasn’t exactly cooperated in getting a true 5K in. But I got a nice long walk pacing and trying to keep calm watching the news of Hurricane Harvey. We are ok here but it is a trifle damp and we will likely be rather housebound for at least a few more days.
So with the family trip and all it has been a bit since I updated, so I just dumped all the data into one image. I wish this way of pulling up data included active minutes, because otherwise it would be perfect. Besides some car travel time which cut into my steps counts I have been doing pretty well. The first bit with the new bed plus all the excitement did impact my sleep, but that seems to be settling down. And, most exciting to me, despite gorging myself on Wisconsin cheese and all the delights Austin, San Antonio, Galveston, and New Orleans had to offer, a week latter I am back to about goal weight. Though admittedly I did take frozen batches of my soup with me on my trip so it wasn’t a complete nutritional void. So I would say, I have a fair start on settling into a new set point and my new healthy habits. Fingers crossed.
Other health and fitness related news: psyllium fiber in smoothies is palatable, sweet potato in smoothies is pretty danged nice, nuts in smoothies (particularly cashews) is freaking magic, I LOVE smoothies, butterhead lettuce is delicious and expensive, and…I will be considering putting cashews into my next batch of soup.
Now all I need to do is get my 5K in before the start of the semester, and I think I can officially call this summer a success.
No Vitamix soup, despite the fact that I literally had all the ingredients. I have just been exhausted trying to finish the master bedroom we have been working on. My husband probably more so since he did the bulk, but I only had evenings and weekends after work. But without further ado, here is my most fantastical and “excessive” dresser bed. I needed storage space, but did not want any dressers with flat surfaces where I could hoard and stack junk up. So I found the Ultimate Bed online a few years ago and bookmarked it for when we finally got to renovating that room.
This is the 18 drawer king in honey oak with 6 end drawers, mission headboard, and dual nightstands. It weighs a bazillion pounds, came in 14 shipping boxes, and took hubby and I 13 hours to put together. But we fight a lot when we build together, and I am spatially challenged so it could probably be done in much less time. And the instructions are really good and clear, and written in proper English with proper diagrams and details sheets. The only thing we really, truly struggled with was the end drawer doors, but a quick look on the website cleared that right up. The drawers did not come with knobs or handles, and they honestly don’t need them, but we ended up adding them for a more finished look since the rest of the room will be so minimalist.
It is a really clever design because it is so modular. So if I get frustrated with the height (I will likely require a step stool for this, I CAN get in without one, but I am assured I look a little insane doing it) we can shorten it. If we wanted to, we could drop this down to two layers, buy or build another platform for the pieces we took off, and instantly have another king bed. Or we could take out some end drawers and shove it together to form a queen or full, or we could split the top level in half and do two twins. Basically, this is 6 twin single level dresser beds all put together, and can be broken down into any number of other configurations with minimal investment for platform(s). They actually have something they call a dorm bed, that they recommend because once they are out on their own it can be transformed into more “adult” beds. Though I don’t know what dorms allow you to bring your own furniture like that. But still, looks like a pretty clever option for an in home growing up bed that the kid could take with them when they move out. Though that twin would obviously be as high as this one.
We added some nice little drawer pulls, to match with our super fancy rubbed bronze wall plates, and bought a cute little storage bench that will also serve as a step stool as needed (since the bed is to tall to sit on and put on socks and shoes).
So enough “advertising”, I just really wanted to share because I am so excited about my new thing.
Stats: Week July 22-28, 2017
There will be traveling at the and of next week, and much of the following week, so it will be interesting to see how that shakes out.
Another week, another Vitamix soup, because I managed to go shopping and even managed to buy enough for a couple of weeks AND figured out how to freeze spinach. And I really do feel better when I do the soup. Sadly I don’t know that it will appreciably improve my compliance on this measure.
Stats: Week July 15-21, 2017
I am down a bit on my activity measures, but I think overall I have to consider it a win, especially with the bump back up on sleep. Weight is holding steady under my goal weight. Big doings for the next couple of weeks to get the house ready (pictures will be forthcoming on the next post), and THEN…family trip. I can only hope I will have made enough headway that the inevitable backslide isn’t too onerous.
Another week, but not another Vitamix soup, becauseI failed to go shopping. Really hits home how much prepping is needed for diet and nutrition.
So a bit late on my June 5K, but I DID get my June and July 5Ks in, more or less (emphasis on the more). It was about a billion degrees outside so I did them indoors, so no GPS. But, I was doing a L4L competition (Team Grumpy Cats 6-we placed 9th) so I had personal bests to beat. I ended up beating my personal best on Saturday with over 50,000 steps. So I went for the marathon on Sunday. My usual 5Ks are shy of 6000 steps and around an hour, so you could say I did a bunch of 5Ks this weekend. Then the rest of the week was a really big week because my team of 5 (Team Grumpy Cats 3) was basically down 2 entire people and the other reliably high stepper had stuff going on which made it a struggle to even get her minimums in. Since I am competitive this helped me up my steps, and we managed to complete it!
Stats: Week July 8-14, 2017
Had an Overall Great week. Sleep stopped backsliding and maybe even bumped back up a bit….and I will keep plugging along.
Another week, another Vitamix soup. The red bell pepper helped with color, but it was oddly sweeter than the carrots. Not sure if that was the pepper itself or something about the vegetables this week.
Here is my current recipe for what I am calling Sneaky Tomato Soup.
Roast any roasted vegetables in the oven at 425 for about 20-25 minutes. Put all ingredients into a pot then add enough water to equal 4 or so quarts (add bouillon cubes if you like yours beefy and salty and your diet can handle it-I added 4 but I am a Campbell’s plebe) and simmer down until you reach 3.5 quarts. Split into two batches and use Vitamix soup program or equivalent. Then pour back into pot and mix well. Then split into seven 2-cup mason jars (this time I then poured it all back in the Vitamix jar and it was easier to pour into the mason jars with them sitting in the sink than it was to ladle). Put about half in the fridge and the other half in the freezer.
So for Women 31-50 the USDA recommends the following vs what is in my soup:
Dark Green Vegetables: 1.5 Cups     vs    1.5 cups
Red/Orange Vegetables: 5.5 cups    vs    5.5 cups
Beans and Peas: 1.5 cups    vs       NONE
Starchy Vegetables: 5 cups    vs    2 cups
“Other” Vegetables: 4 cups    vs    4 cups
Stats: Week July 2-7, 2017
Doing well overall. Sleep backslid a bit but I will keep plugging along. And I plan to get my June and July 5Ks in on Saturday and Sunday July 8-9.
I made another Vitamix soup. This one is much more successful than the first one, and I ate it for lunch all week. I did decide to scale back on the vegetables and be more reasonable about my expectations for getting at least a serving of vegetables at dinner. I also went back to the actual USDA recommendations for vegetables.
Here is my current recipe for what I am calling Sneaky Tomato Soup.
Roast any roasted vegetables in the oven at 425 for about 20-25 minutes. Put all ingredients into a pot then add enough water to equal 4 or so quarts (add bouillon cubes if you like yours beefy and salty and your diet can handle it-I added 4 but I am a Campbell’s plebe) and simmer down until you reach 3.5 quarts. Split into two batches and use Vitamix soup program or equivalent. Then pour back into pot and mix well. Then split into seven 2-cup mason jars. Put about half in the fridge and the other half in the freezer.
So for Women 31-50 the USDA recommends the following vs what is in my soup:
Dark Green Vegetables: 1.5 Cups     vs    1.5 cups
Red/Orange Vegetables: 5.5 cups    vs    5.5 cups
Beans and Peas: 1.5 cups    vs       NONE
Starchy Vegetables: 5 cups    vs    2 cups
“Other” Vegetables: 4 cups    vs    4 cups
This leaves me to get 1.5 cups of beans/peas and 3 cups “starchy” vegetables. Beans are easy as I will easily eat refried beans, lentils, or even navy beans. I could even swap them in, in lieu of the nuts I am eating with the soup for lunch now. And of course once I get the rest of the recipe down I can add them to it either whole or mixed in. But since starchy vegetables are only listed as being  corn, green peas, or white potatoes…they are a little trickier than other vegetables to stick into soup. I can and will eat mashed potatoes, but somehow that seems like a cop out. And corn really isn’t the best choice for me, though I do better with it than I used to.
The big sub I am considering making for this week is to trade the carrots out for red bell pepper, which should increase the red color in the soup nicely. I suspect the orange I got was at least in part due to the carrots. But if anyone has any suggestions for what else might constitute a “starchy” vegetable, that would be good.
Stats: Week June 24- July 1, 2017
So another nice consistent week. I should probably adjust my goals since I am so consistently exceeding the set ones, but it makes me a little neurotic that it would make it look like I didn’t previously meet my goals. I am 0.5 lbs from my goal weight  and my actual sleep is still going well. I am very carefully trying to not rock the boat, though eating dinner so early is a struggle. FitBit’s sleep stages unfortunately is on the fritz again, so that is disappointing. But otherwise, a good week. I still need to get June’s 5K, so I will have to double up July, but the weather has been uncooperative. The rain isn’t the hugest issues, but lightening isn’t something to mess with.
I finished vacation with a walking bang and my L4L team placed 4th. Dipped my toes in one day at work, then work was cancelled for the hurricane that wasn’t on Wednesday. It made for an interesting week. Plus, this is literally the best sleep week I have had, ever. Or at least since I got the Fitbit, but I honestly can’t remember a better/more consistent one.
On the Vitamix front, I haven’t made another soup yet, but yesterday I did put celery in my smoothie…which is…interesting.
Stats: Week June 17-23, 2017
Nothing exciting. Exercise wise, I am still taking a small vacation. Minimum goals, minimum effort, maximum vacation. In other news, much like every other incident in life, it can best be described as “probably benign”. I am just going to roll with it.
Stats: Week June 10-16, 2017
So the exciting news for this week is that I have my Vitamix, and I am having a ton of fun with it. Not having quite so much fun with the amount of whoo I am encountering when searching for recipes or tips & tricks, but you have to take the good with the bad. But if anyone has any favorite blender recipes, I am all ears.
I even made the USDA suggestions soup. The first day or so were a bit of a struggle, but I am becoming acclimatized. However, it was a bit bland, plus I actually will eat green beans on their own, one of the few vegetable I can manage, so it doesn’t make sense to me for me to blend them. I will be making some tweaks on the next batch, at the least adding more garlic and spices and finding something to swap for green beans.
But those fruit smoothies though, damn. I never honestly dreamed a smoothie could ever feel that delightful in my mouth. I’ll admit I thought people were insane for spending that much money for some blended fruit at professional places (almost as crazy as I assume people think I am for spending this much money on a blender). All I can say is that if I had ever tried a pro smoothie before, I might not have ever been able to afford my own fancy smoothie machine. I wussed out on putting any veggies in this week (fear is a terrible thing), so that is my goal for next week, to start slipping veggies into my fruit smoothies.
Exercise wise, I am taking a small vacation. I won my first Step Bet, which was often a struggle, and then I looked and saw how much my step requirement would go up and I figured it was pretty impossible to do another one right away. Instead I am backing down my steps to my “minimum” goal of 17,500 a day and I will go back to Step Bet when things are more possible.
Weight wise I am approximately 3 lbs from goal, though body composition is an issue. Which was of course to be expected considering I have lost about 50 lbs and eschewed weight lifting. I know better, but just couldn’t seem to make myself go. I planned to go while I am on vacation…that didn’t happen either. Ceste la vie. I am njot UNhappy with where I am at, and life is nothing but time.
Altogether, a nice, soothing week. Heck, even my sleep came into line a little bit. I have been playing with meal time and macros to see how it interacts with my sleep medications. Frankly, just because 8-10 PM is when my body prefers dinner, doesn’t mean that is a good plan in a pharmacological sense.
Stats: Week June 3-9, 2017
...Burns Through Her Bookshelf 