The Blah's and Sugar Crazies

Today is a blah day. I'm still grateful for a lot of things, but I need help and guidance on a whole lot. I gave up sugar six months ago, then slowly dove back into the sugar pool during the holidays, and haven't managed to fully exit the scene ever since. Now I've gone from just dabbling with artificial sweetners and the occasional molasses/agave/honey, to full blown white/cocaine sugar and fake crappy crap sweet crap. Argh! Clearly something is wrong with my diet, I just need to get this junk out of my system and start anew. I know that I need to clean up my diet and go back to eating the way that made me feel good before: protein, veggies, carbs, fats - whole, real foods, no fake foods, and no sweets. I just can't seem to act or feel like a normal human being with sweets. help!

So far this is me today on cocoa and sweetned coffee...

I seriously need help! On the brightside, my soreness from the half marathon on Sunday is much less today. yay! But I have not done my usual Tuesday weight training, and since I've been drinking sugary crap all day, I don't see myself doing it later. I'm giving myself a total day off from health, which is ridiculous, but that's what's happening, period, the end. Tomorrow is a new day, and hopefully no sweets are involved! I need to know that I can recover from this silliness after all. I have accomplished greater things in my life, gosh darnit!

Mood today: frustrated yet happy (that my hip/hamstring pain is less!)

Craving today: ....... sugar. sigh.....

Prayer today: Dear Lord, Please help me with my sugar and food cravings, and help me with my weaknesses! Amen

Inspirational quote of the day:

Gratitude List:

• The Lord
• Angels that the Lord has placed in my life
• My job/coworkers/boss
• This green retro/Madmen style sweater that my Mom gave me :-)
• My stepdad for being an Angel today and giving me a ride to my car
• Max, just for being sweet and normal

Alright, well that concludes my rambles for today. Tomorrow is a new day. My wishes for tomorrow include working out, feeling better, meeting a great sports doctor, having a great day at work, seeing Max, staying away from sugar, eating enough real food, and loving myself :-) Amen

1/2 Marathon Done, Soreness, and Monday's

Happy Monday, so grateful that I survived the race yesterday. Wow, it was such a perfect day for running! The weather was amazing: sunny and clear, dry, and temps from mid 40's to high 50's.. just beautiful. The race organizers were extra awesome, another thing to be grateful for, and my VIP parking was well worth the few extra bucks. Overall the USA Fit Half Marathon in Sugar Land was the best race event I've been to so far; it was well organized, everyone was SO friendly, the crowd was super cool and and the vibe as just fantastic. Plus the weather was great and the race course was very nice.

Mood today: humble, appreciative, happy, tired

Food craving today: sweets - BOO, I really wish I could stop craving sugar but my body and mind are just craving carbs right now and it makes me feel irritated that I want them since I am not working out today at all. Am I totally nuts?

Inspiration today:

So I was feeling really nervous before the race and ended up going rather bat crazy with carbs and sweets the night and the Friday before. My bf loved this since he thinks I don't eat enough carbs, so he got to witness me carb-out on Friday night, and Saturday afternoon. It was nice but my tummy was so tired and confused, (which is even more frustrating that I am craving them so badly now... argh!)
Anyhow, Sunday morning I was feeling rather neutral and numb about the whole thing; not as freaked out and just ready to get the darn thing over with. I knew I was not going to PR nor race without some pain, so I just made peace with the crappy stuff... and tried to find the bright side. This in turn translated into me wearing tiger-pring arm sleeves on my legs, and made me happy. Clowning around with fashion is fun! hahahah

and self-shot headshots are pretty ridiculous as well... yet fun

So back to my day, gratitude and my wish list... yes, wish list. I'm going to throw out a wish list since why not? It's Monday and I need something to day dream about.

Wish list:

• Run a marathon in sub 4:00, and since I don't think I want to run another one after my first one next month, that means I wish to run my first (and possibly last) marathon in under 4 hours.. on March 4th. In the Woodlands. Yep, that is a why it's called 'wishful thinking' I suppose!
• Run/Workout without getting injured and totally painfree - major awesome wish!!!
• Eat anything I want and not suffer any negative side effects, at all.
• Discover frozen yogurt that makes me literally lose fat and gain muscle just by eating it. Hey, this is my wish list after all!
• Get sent to Paris for work - this could happen, technically, but pretty far fetched in the immediate future.
• Not feel so horrible about my food cravings
• Handle over my food cravings
• Life heavier weights; build muscle; lose body fat
• Get faster
• Win 1st place in a race, any race!
• Leave the country at least twice this year
• Find out how I'm supposed to help people... and help them

Okay that is my wish list for today. To follow that up, here is my gratitude list:

Gratitude List:

• A great race event yesterday
• Awesome weather
• Running my heart out yesterday and not giving up
• My legs and my body
• God for giving me strength, power, and being the core of my life
• My mom because she is an amazing, beautiful woman
• Max for keeping me grounded, even when I'm high in the sky and totally bonkers sometimes
• God, he deserves to thanked twice and always.

Amen!

What am I doing???

Okay, it's late and I have an early morning half marathon tomorrow to deal with. Since I can't sleep like I am supposed to right now, I figured this would be the perfect time to remind myself what I'm thankful for. So let's begin, shall we?

What I'm grateful for today:
Gorgeous weather! clear skies and temps in the mid 60's... amaze
Max - he really brings me back to earth and out of my neurotic self-destruction.. oh yes, he's a lucky one
The ability to run, God willing, this race tomorrow... and survive and hopefully do well..? please?
My family
Black-strap molasses

What is buggin me right now and I'm praying about:
My pesky hip flexor and hamstring pain... dear Lord, please be okay for tomorrow!
My over dose of sugar the last 24 hours, I seriously want to detox after tomorrow and need strength from the Man above. Help!
My overly active and obsessive mind - honestly I think it is all the sugar and crap I've eaten recently, it makes me feel nutty.
My nerves! I just want to relax, and have faith.. deep breath in, okay.

Well it's late so I'm going to end this on a high note and say I am thankful for this day and for tomorrow. I am thankful for my life and all the joys and all the pains... yes, I am grateful for what I have. Amen.

TGIF - Thank Goodness It's Friday

Attitude of the day: hopeful, nervous (about the run on Sunday, yikes!)

Craving of the day: yogurt... oh my goodness, I can't get enough yogurt!!! I haven't eaten yogurt in months and suddenly today that's all I want, plus I have a MAJOR sweet tooth today. gripes :-/

Recipe of the day: this recipe from the Food Network pretty much sums up what I'm drooling over today. Likes I said, after months without sugar or dairy, it's all coming out now! http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/the-surreal-gourmet/granola-yogurt-berry-parfait-recipe/index.html

Smoothie of the day: didn't really have a smoothie, but last night for dessert I made a Cocoa Coconut Banana shake that was HEAVEN!!! it was just a cup of pure coconut cream, 1 banana, some agave, and 2 big spoons of 100% cocoa powder.. blend in a bullet or blender and wha-lah! heaven right there. Yummy!

Inpsirational quote of the day:

We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what we will do, by finding out what we will not do.
Samuel Smiles

and I like this image, it fits me today:



Yes, TGIF indeed. What a crazy/cool weeks it's been. How can I not be thankful that today is Friday? I mean, basically just waking up today already made me smile a little because I realized that I don't have to work tomorrow, yesssssss. Sorry for those that do  - I feel your pains! I used to work weekends and actually 7 days/week, in a former life ;)
Yesterday's tummy troubles really threw me off, and I just felt way out of whack all day and now even more so today. Four weeks ago I started fasting on Fridays, basically after dinner on Thursday I would just skip breakfast and lunch on Friday, to give my digestive parts a break, then eat a great dinner.  I found out about this on Mark's Daily Apple, called Intermittent Fasting, and thought it was interesting especially sincer many other cultures practice fasting and it is not for diet or weight loss, but more spiritual based. Anyhow, I decided I would try it and loved how I felt! But the time when I started, I was not doing as much cardio due to my injury, and it was not an issue. Now that I'm running and training a little bit more, I am not sure if that's so wise, at least not before my marathon in March. Honestly this marathon training combined with my injury has gotten me out of sync and feelng all sorts of whacky and unbalanced lately! I'm working extra hard to find the balance. I gave up sugar and grains and dairy for a few months and then had some again, and it didn't kill me, but now I'm all confused because I wonder what is right for my particular body. Ya know? I just want to feel good, have energy, and eat comfortably while remaining lean and toned... don't we all? of course we do, but I'm serious! haha.
Okay, enough with all my babbles and bobbs. I really want to end this thing on a positive note since that is the whole point after all!

Gratitude List:
Fruit! even though I seem to over-dose on it
Carbs - they are fueling my run on Sunday and my make me happy right now
Losing control - sometimes it is good for a control freak (like me) to lose control and see that the world is still okay :-)
Surrendering - giving up control and turning over my worries to God is pretty darn awesome

and last but not least...

Happy Friday!

Thankful for Thursday!

Nope, not original today. I am just plain ole thankful that today is Thursday. I had a pretty challenging evening tummy-wise, and this forced me to stop running after 2.5 miles this morning. Bummer! Basically, on Tuesday I ate TONS of salad and veggies, in an effort to be "extra healthy" and well, it ended up back firing on me... literally, lol. Sorry, but it's the truth. All last night my stomach was in knots and made noises like a grizzly bear or something! I'll leave out what happened in between the hours of 2am to 5am, but basically by 5am when I was supposed to run, my very fragile and traumatized tummy told me, "um, NO! yeah, as if" so I had to cut my run short and hobble home... and back to the ladies room, ahem. Yeah, I am used to running with pain and this tummy pain was insane! I've never felt anything like it. Has anyone else suffered from eating too many raw veggies and fruits? I know I just over did it... and now I'm paying for it today. Lesson learned. So, my tummy is still bloated and crampy but I'm supposed to do weight training, and still need to run at least 3 miles. I am praying that this stuff clears up by lunchtime... 3-4 hours? Please, dear Lord... help?!

On a side note, last night I was watching Top Chef - does anyone else love this show like I do? Anyhow, I love Padma but last night her outfit was really... um, 'interesting'.

this is what she normally looks like

But this is what she wore last night...sorry it did not let me copy this image correctly but you see what I mean. Am I crazy for thinking that it just didn't do as much for her as, well anything else? She is so beautiful, I totally love her! just not the flannel sack dress.

Attitude today: humbled, aggrivated, hopeful

Food craving today: none! my tummy can't take anything right now, bleh.

Recipe today: honestly, some roasted chicken sounds great for later... wow, I have issues. I just spent all night in the bathroom and I can still talk food. Ugh!

Most thankful for today: my ability to run! gosh darnit, when this stomach ache passes I can't wait to hit the track again... even though I'm still coming off an injury, I am so very thankful that my legs still work... to some degree :-)

Gratitude List of the Day:

Thankful it's Thursday, hooray!
Thankful that I actually dragged my bloated, crampy sad self to work
Thankful that I listed to my body this morning and stopped before I really damaged something
Thankful for aromatherapy... the smell of Vanilla and Cinnamon really make me a better person :-)

Have you ever over eaten healthy foods and it ended up backfiring on you?
Has any of your favorite celebrities worn something that just totally tripped you out?
Do you love a certain food so much that even if you've been violently ill, you'll still salivate over it?

Thankful for Hump Day, Rain, and Coconut

Attitude of the Day: Positive! and a little nervous about the thunderstorms and bad weather, and anxious yet excited about running.

Food Craving of the Day: Coconut Cream - I just can't get enough of it. Help! All I want are coconuts.. at every meal. I'm a little coo-coo for coconuts. Okay, I'll stop now.

Smoothie of the Day: Sweet potato, shredded coconut, chilled chai tea, stevia, protein, chia seeds, and cinnamon. YUMM

Workout of the Day: Running/Cross Training. Plan is to run an easy 3 miles on the dreadmill, then ride the stationary bike for 30-40. Well, at least that is the plan, we'll see what my body and my Higher Power have in store for me! Hoo haahhh 

Positive Thought of the Day: " Courage does not mean you do not have fear. Rather you have the knowledge that something else is greater in life than fear."

--- Author Unknown --- Submitted by Bridget H. --- Georgia

 Well, it is black as night outside at 10AM and there is a severe weather alert right now. Tornados, thunder storms, flooding, oh my! Yes, it is pretty bonkers in Houston right about now, weather wise. On the agenda today? Work, work out, survive the storm, eat, service tonight... rest. Good thing my bf and I have plans tomorrow instead of tonight!

Daily Gratitude List:

I am thankful for -

• My sweet, considerate and easy-going boyfriend. Yeah, I guess I'll say that. I suppose he deserves a shout-out, heehee.
• Rain - despite the scary looking storm outside I know the city and plant life need it. Hopefull the people, animals and homes will survive!
• My job - I really do love my job. After leaving the industry to "take a huge risk" for a few years, I now truly appreciate stability and security. Plus, I work with great people and it makes life even sweeter.
• Amazon - yes, I am thankful for Amazon for letting me unleash my hoarding-like ways in the forms of ordering bulk amounts of coconut products, supplements, and other nutritional hoopla.
• Awesome Bloggers- I know I don't know you yet, but I've been a fan of some awesome blogs and those gals (and some guys) really are awesome!

Thanks for today, for everything about today, all the rain, the worry, the grief, the food cravings due to weather??? the sore muscles, the crazy traffic, the awesome food that I brought for lunch... thanks for it all. AMEN!

Giving Thanks... to Life!

Well, this is my first blog and my first online, public gratitude journal entry. I decided that after many years of following so many blogs I wanted to create a blog of my very own, yep all mine. But about what? Well, for the life of me I could not decide What On Earth to blog about. I mean, I love so many things! for crying out loud.. how can I choose one? Lately I've been reading lots of blogs on exercise - particularly running since I'm currently training and approaching my very first marathon on March 4, 2012... eek! -  nutrition, cooking, and spiritual/self-help blogs. But like I said, I have many passions.

My Passions List includes but is not confined to: 

• Food
• Healthy eating and nutrition
• Exercise: Favorite is running! and pretty much anything that makes me sweat. Spinning and swimming are great also.
• Strength training - very new to this but I am loving it.. and very suprised by this
• Traveling
• Painting/art
• Adventure 
• Wine/adult beverages
• Ethnic cuisine (more food)
• Cooking (and more food)
• Gluten free stuff (yep, food again)
• Finding a good work-life balance where ideally I work less and enjoy my hobbies more, running!
• Reading... blogs and more, teehee
• Challenging myself physically
• Spirituality/worship
• Overcoming challenges, whether it be physical, emotional, mental or romantical (I jest, but not really!)
• Staying positive and finding a way to see the good side in life, always
• LAUGHING!!!! Belly laughs are the best but any are good, even a good giggle or heehaw or random chuckle

Sooooooooo my point to all that jazz was that I wanted to find a way to express myself via blog, but wasn't sure what to focus on until it dawned on me: I don't have to pick one thing, I can just start off by giving thanks! daily or regularly, and just go from there... Rome was not built in a day, and my blogging journey will be a baby-steps process, just like everything else good in life.

This brings me to the main or current point of this blog: gratitude. I have personally recovered from many challenges... physical, mental, professional, and emotional challenges, all that that nearly brought me to my knees at multiple times, making me want to throw up the white flag and just yell, "I surrender!" and after each storm I somehow survived, I finally realized maybe I'm not being punished or doomed for disaster, and maybe just maybe life can be great if I just think about changing my own thinking! So what I'm saying is that things did not get better until I took the time to recognize what I do have, rather than what I didn't. Basically, no matter how challenging things get, if you just take a moment to give thanks to something, anything! than things will get better... this I know for certain. So today at this moment, I am giving thanks to Life. Well, to my life and everything about it. All the trials and tribulations, all the challenges, all the broken hearts and wounded knees and failed attempts at ______ (fill in the blank) I am grateful for everything that has brought me here, to right now. I believe in God but am very open minded and respectful... I just believe in giving thanks and sharing thanks. Yes, I am thankful for today and for now. Amen!

In summary...  

Just kidding! This was on my FB wall and it cracked me up... hope ya'll get it :-) 

This is one of my father and moi, back in May of 2010... he passed away last September and in many ways, this blog is for you, Dad. I'm thankful for you, wherever you are and I know that you are smiling down on me.  

This is a pic of my two sisters, Ting on the far left, Riki in the middle, and yours truly on the right... This was taken at my sister Katherine's wedding, just this last Labor Day weekend. What a great time and memory!

Speaking of Katherine's wedding, here is a photo of all of us, with my dear Father, my three brothers, and three sisters. Just missing in this photo are Babs and Elizabeth... may she rest in peace.

And from my mom's side, here is my lovely mother and me at Thanksgiving! She and my stepfather and youngest brother Nicholas all live here in Houston, so in other words they are my roots and my heart, and make Houston my home for now.

Speaking of Nicholas.... yeah, he's a total character. He makes me proud!

And this is the awesome Christmas Coffee Cup he made me this last holiday - it says #1 Sis... so sweet and heck yeah! smile 

Okay, well that's all for now and once again... Thank you, for everything!