My Secret FromThe Petticoat

I just heard from my Sofie! She's out of surgery...all is well...she's a bit dizzy but she's officially a banded sister! If you don't follow her, I suggest you check her blog out to see her awesome before picture!

Congratulations, Sofie!

BYOC on a Sunday

I can do that, right? I'm putting off doing housework...

1. Since I talked about psychics this week - I'm curious....if you could see one for free and you could only ask one question - what would it be?

Honestly? I don't know. I've never been to a psychic, but I imagine that I'd like to play with her/his head a little bit and see how wrong they could be about stuff.

2. What's your favorite ice cream flavor and topping?

I'm not a huge ice cream person, but when I do go for it, I'm a Baskin & Robbins Peanut Butter and Chocolate gal. Or if I'm buying it, I like Haagen Daas (did I spell that right?) Dulce De Leche. It's soooo creamy. Topping? Hmmm...maybe a hot moist brownie?

3. What's your preferred method of working out? DVDs, an external gym, gym inside your home, classes?

I totally prefer the gym, even though I feel intimidated in gyms. I love classes! Even though I step all over myself through Zumba, and I'm terrified that I'm gonna kill someone with a weight during Body Pump, I like the fact that I'm there for the duration, sweating it out with a bunch of other people. At the moment, since I'm broke, it's just me and Jillian Michaels, shredding every morning.

4. If you work outside the home or if you ever did or will in the future - do you think it's better/easier to work with men or woman? Who do you work mostly with now?

I work better with men. I can flirt with men more effectively, thereby getting my way more often. Thank you, boobies.

5. Repeat question. Summarize your week in real life and in blog land.

This week was fun...I got my nose pierced! I've wanted to do it for years, and never could when I was working because they kinda frown on face jewelery when you're an undertaker. So I FINALLY did it, and I insanely LOVE it! Other than that, I'm still logging my food intake...I got a fill on Monday, and I don't really notice a huge difference, so this week will be about portions and making good choices and not drinking my calories.

Two NSVs In One Night!

Last night I went to a girlfriend's 40th birthday party. It was a blast...lots of friends there, people who haven't seen me in a while who were all "omg you look amazing!" which is always nice. There was a huge potluck buffet, and (this is NSV #1) I didn't touch one bite! Know why? (here comes NSV #2!) Because I was too busy dancing! I danced all night! I don't think I sat for 5 minutes the whole night! I just danced and danced! OH! Maybe there's another NSV here too! I saw the pictures posted on FB, and although I don't love all of them (who ever does, right?), there's not one where I looked at my body...at my SIZE...and felt bad! All of them, even where I was dancing or obviously talking animatedly, I thought I looked fairly normal sized! In JEANS, no less! Do I have a muffin top? Absolutely! Do I care? Not really! Wooo!

All in all, a good night!

I Accept Your Mission, Linda!

My lovely kitten Linda has offered up a challenge, and since I love myself excessively, I have chosen to accept and whittle my list of things I love about myself down to just 5. I suggest you do the same! It's fun!

1. I love how social I am! Flirting is the thing I might be best at in the whole world! I love it so much I wish I could eat it (ha! That sounds kinda dirty!)

2. I love my sense of humour! (it would have been cool to write something hilarious here, but I couldn't think of anything...so here...let me wink at you and have I told you today how sexy you are? ;)

3. I love how I parent! My kids are polite, fun, funny, you can say anything to them, and they are well behaved. I'm super proud of the men they're turning out to be, and I take full credit (small props to the baby daddy, but mostly ima take the credit).

4. I love my massive Messiah complex! I think that so much of the world needs saving, and if I can be the one who helps someone out, I frickin live for that shiz. Seriously!

5. I want to say I love my eyes, but in the end, I've gotta go with boobs. My cleavage should win awards! I want to motorboat my OWN self! Yeah baby!

Ok...now YOU go! I triple dog dare ya!

A Quick Thought About "Restriction"

I am well trained by my clinic. We don't use the word "restriction". If you say that word, you get a lecture on how you shouldn't feel restriction...how if the band is working as it's designed to work, you almost shouldn't know it's there, except that your hunger is controlled. And you know what? For the most part, I 100% agree with them, and here's why:

For the past I don't know how many months, I've thought my band was working fine. I wasn't hungry most of the time, and that's what it's supposed to be like, right? Not that I was measuring my one cup portions. Not that I was keeping track. I was just wandering into the kitchen and taking a bite of this and a bite of that, and finishing the little bit left on my kid's plates...and thinking "what am I doing wrong? Why am I not losing weight?" It's hard to be hungry when you're grazing all day long, right?

So...I started measuring and tracking (aka: following the stupid RULES). And guess what? I'm hungry. Not all the time...but more than every 4 hours. And so I've scheduled a fill, but I'm kicking myself, because if I'd been paying attention and doing what I was supposed to be doing, I could have been losing this whole time, instead of being basically plateauing for a year (although I can hardly call it a plateau, since I was clearly fucking it all up, and I guess I should thank my lucky stars that the plateau wasn't a gain!)

Anyway. THAT'S the revelation I had today. Oh, and by the way? I am kicking ass at weight loss in a way that I haven't since the early days of my band. I'm an idiot, but I'm finally getting it again. This IS going to happen...oh yeah it is.

(PS: my mother told me that she had to look twice at me in the drugstore the other day, because she wasn't sure it was me because my ass was so small. That's kind of huge. Not my ass. The compliment. You get it...)

(PPS: tonight I start rehearsals on my new play ["Looking" by Norm Foster]! It's hilarious, and I have to be on stage in workout clothes AND I have to make out with a dude whilst ripping our clothes off. So yeah...fear is motivating. Wish me leg breaking!)

Further On The Kale Odyssey

Thanks to those of you who gave me some kale input! I am obsessed! I can think of little else! And to that end, I went out today to replenish my kale supplies...and made THIS for dinner (for myself...the rest of the mob got pancakes):

THIS is what happens when you spread it out on a baking sheet, and shpritz it with olive oil (as suggested to me by Erin...thank you Erin!) and cook it with a 2 oz piece of salmon. Crispy and melt in your mouth and, again, LIFE ALTERINGLY delicious! The salmon also didn't suck, but obviously, kale is the star of the show.

Obsessing about kale is so much better than obsessing about Oreos!

Sweet Baby Kale!

I was sitting down to write this...and before I did, I popped over to Read's blog and read pretty much exactly what I was gonna write, with a few small differences...so here is my version:

Yesterday I popped into Whole Foods to see if I could find the ever elusive can of fire roasted tomatoes with which to make Linda's amazing tortilla soup (I made it with regular canned tomatoes, and it was yummy, but I'm betting Glen Muir and Ro*Tel could kick it up several notches). I didn't find the tomatoes (bloody Canada...pfft) but I DID find fresh kale. I've never actually eaten kale...although I'm aware that it's like the SUPEREST of superfoods...so I bought some. I sauteed it with some chopped garlic in olive oil...simple as that...and IT WAS LIFE ALTERING!!!! It was the most delicious veggie EVER!! And I also notice you can deep fry it and it comes out like chips! Unreal! Ok...basically I just told you how to take a really healthy food and turn it into an unhealthy food...but come on! KALE! I highly recommend you try some!

As for booze...well...this week I did the cutting-back-on-the-wine thing. Which meant only drinking on the weekend, like normal people. And guess what? I lost weight. Even though I ate over my calories on several days, I was still down. So...what do we learn from this? Booze is bad? NEVER! You shut yo' mouth! But I did learn that it's really not that big a sacrifice to not have a glass of wine every night...and I was rewarded with downward scale movement! That's a good reward! Totally worth it!