What a Bunch of Dips!

My weekend wasn't horrible, didn't drink (although the boys did) and ate fairly healthy. We went bowling, followed by karaoke on Friday, and visited with family on Saturday. I made us dinner on Friday: mushroom soup, burgers with jalapeno cheese, and taco salad. We were visiting my boyfriends cousin on Saturday night, and we ordered Chinese food, I tried to watch my portions and had lots of veggies. His cousin's children made chocolate chip cookies, and I had one. Just one. I'm calling that a victory. :)

Today was a little more ambitious. I went to my group this afternoon, and then walked home. Edmonton is a river city, and downtown is built right on the edge of the river. Beautiful views? Check. Lush green trees? Check. Walking trails? Check. Ample pedestrian crossings and easily accessibly sidewalks? Ummm... not so much. I took the wrong set of stairs down into the valley, and ended up having to climb a big hill and then back tracking to get going towards the right part of town. My steps for today are 12,500, and I figure the walk home was about 8 km. The stairs out of the river valley were a pretty harsh go. I know that they will get easier as I drop the excess weight.

I wasn't very impressed that my iPod Nike+ seems to have kicked the bucket. I've only had it since September, and they're supposed to last at least a year. I'll have to see if they will replace it for me. It would have been nice to have had that updated on the Nike website.
I made Tzatziki sauce on Friday, and Hummus today.

Tzatziki Sauce
Ingredients

• container low fat greek yogurt
• 1 long english cucumber
  
• juice of 1 lemon, plus a little lemon zest
• 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• fresh dill (I used lots, I love dill)

Directions

• Peel and seed the cucumber, reserve a couple of strips of the peel
  
• Chop the reserved peel very finely
• Grate or finely chop the cucumber, then remove as much liquid from the cucumber as possible (I placed paper towel in a bowl, put the cucumber in and squeezed the heck out of it)
• Combine the yogurt and cucumber (drained and the finely chopped peel) in a bowl
• Add the finely minced garlic and fresh chopped dill to mixture, fold in with spatula
• Juice one lemon, fold in to mixture
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Refrigerate Tzatziki for at least one hour before serving! It is important for the flavors to have time to mix, or you will end up serving something that tastes like plain yogurt with small weird chunkies in it. After the flavors have had a chance to meld together you will have a refreshing, crisp, wonderfully cucumbery, cool dip that is great for pitas or dipping veggies.
  

My Tzatziki was runnier than the stuff you would find in the store or in a restaurant, although it still tastes great. I assume it's because I used a 'Balkan-style' yogurt, and not actual Greek yogurt. Many recipes suggest straining the Greek yogurt through cheesecloth for a few hours in the fridge to get the firmer texture.

Hummus
Ingredients

• One can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), with 1/4 cup of the liquid reserved
• 2-4 cloves garlic (depend on how garlicy you like your hummus)
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup Tahini Paste
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Directions

• Finely mince garlic
• Combine all ingredients in blender, blend until smooth

Mine turned out a little garlicky, but it's got a wonderful little bite to it. I can't wait to have this with some celery tomorrow!

Survey Says... Surgery

Saw my endocrinologist today for my test results, the good news is that all of my bloodwork looked really good, so on paper I'm fairly healthy. He said that I definitely do have PCOS though. He doesn't think it's important to put me on metformin at this point, which is a positive. He and the resident working with him think that it's very important to get my menstrual cycle back on track, but I can't be on birth control as I'm BRCA2 positive (long story short I'm at a hugely high risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer) and estrogen increases the chance of getting cancer. Not shedding your uterine lining greatly increases the chance of getting endometrial cancer, so I'm being scheduled for a biopsy and they've decided to put in an IUD that delivers progesterone to the uterus. Good fun. It'll mean day surgery (apparently stretching the cervix warrants the need to be put under anesthetic), but at least they're taking care of everything in one go.

So besides the IUD, the other important part of dealing with PCOS is getting to a healthier weight. PCOS also makes this incredibly difficult. It feels a little overwhelming right now, but I need to persevere. At least I feel like I'm battling something, I have a disorder to overcome, and I'm not just beating myself up for being fat.

I didn't have a great food day today, I had a donut at one point, and my sister and I went to an authentic Naples-style pizza place. At least everything was made with olive oil, and it was super-thin crust pizza. I'm sticking to my guns about not eating out this weekend.

Ah, May in Alberta

Alberta is notorious for snowstorms in May, and 2010 is out to make sure it doesn't disappoint us. The new spring grass and leaves were covered beneath a thick blanket of wet, heavy snow this morning. The sort of day that demands warm soup and books read while cuddled under fuzzy comforters. But I had a date with a friend to go shopping at west edmonton mall, so I braved the slush and wind and off I went, after another hearty breakfast of honey-nut cheerios.

We went for lunch at a Greek place in the food court whose name now escapes me. I opted for the chicken souvlaki pita and Greek salad with a diet cola. It was pretty good, except for the olives. I love olives, but these things tasted the same way that a goat pen smells. I lived on a goat farm at one point, I know what I'm talking about!

I was delighted to learn that there are shirts at Old Navy that I can wear, and I picked up 4 new tops, mostly in bright spring colours.

After we were done at the mall, my friend and I drove out to Spruce Grove to take her daughter to her checkup... what a cutie she is! I got a grande hot chocolate from Starbucks, and we headed back into the city to take a glance at the house she and her husband just bought. We both decided we were hungry around 4:30, so we stopped at Wendy's. I got a jr. bacon cheeseburger. No pop. No fries. Yay me!

Supper was mushroom soup, 5 olives, a sandwich (same as last night but sadly with no tomatoes), and a schwack of celery and some carrots. Stupid-tired seems to be the theme for today, probably because of the weather, so all I'm going to do with the rest of today is watch an episode of House while curled up with Tigs and a cup of green tea.

I've already pre-planned for Friday... going to have the boys over for poker. I'm going to make burgers (real for them, veggie/lentil) for me, with a salad and mushroom soup for a starter, thus avoiding the 'let's go out for dinner...' conundrum we find ourselves in every weekend.

It Sure Is Monday

Slept in late this morning, I attribute that to the adorable ball of purring kitten on my chest. Didn't have time for a breakfast shake, so I had a bowl of honey-nut cheerios and was off to group. It was rainy, so I didn't go for a long walk today, probably about 30 minutes altogether. Had a turkey sandwich on multi-grain bread and 1/2 of a yucky coffee from a 'Trendz' bar in the basement of the hospital, then had a Caramilk bar (d'oh). Supper was really good, made a terrific sandwich, plus carrots and celery sticks, and 6 olives. And a Fruit Plus strawberry banana juice box.

Sandwich:

• 2 slices 15 grain bread
• 1 slice light Havarti cheese
• 2 slices fajitas sliced chicken
• 3 large lettuce leaves
• 1/3 tomato, sliced
• 2" thinly sliced English cucumber
• 1 tbsp light mayo
  

Wild Weekend

This weekend was not a nutritional success for me, excessive amounts of alcohol may have been consumed on Friday, leading to hungover breakfast food on Saturday morning. After volunteering at a Zombie Car Wash from 3-7 on Saturday I just didn't have the willpower to turn down the pizza that they offered us when we were finished. It was a good time though, and we raised over $1300.00 for breast cancer research, and food for the Edmonton Food Bank. Sunday my guy and I met a friend for lunch at Muggn'z on the west end (mushroom burger, and fries and gravy... this is what happens when I don't think before I order), and Chinese food for dinner. Weekend nutrition had definitely been identified as an area that needs a lot of work... but at least I didn't drink any beer.

New neighbors have moved in upstairs. They're pretty young (bless 23 year olds that assume we're the same age) but they seem nice and open, and we seem to be on the same page as far as our attitude about the landlord and prior tenants. They have a puppy named Crash who's an absolute sweetheart.

Speaking of sweethearts, I had a new addition to my family this weekend. I've adopted a 6 month old kitten named Tigs. He's cute, and curious, and uber-cuddly. He's huge for 6 months though... if he keeps growing he's going to be a monster!

Happiness in a Glass

It's been a little while since I made one of my happiness shakes, so I figured it was time again. Had to run out to Zellers yesterday to pick up a blender.

This shake is really simple to make, is super-yummy, uber-healthy, and is a real 'pick-me-up' first thing in the morning. It really is happiness in a glass.



Ingredients:

• medium banana
• 1/2 cup frozen berries (I used strawberries today)
• 1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
• 1/2 cup milk (skim milk is yucky, I use 1%)
• 1/2 cup ice
  
• large handful of washed baby spinach
• 1 tbsp fiber supplement (I use fiber-sure) (optional)
  

Directions:

• throw everything but the spinach in the blender
• turn on the blender till everything's the same color
• throw spinach in the blender
• repeat

The end result was a little bit brownish, it probably could have used a few more strawberries, but it was really yummy!

It's Not All Doom and Gloom!

Being happy is very important to me. Being content. Being hopeful.

What's not important? Being perfect.

There's no such thing anyway. Learning that everything in the world is not black or white, right or wrong, has been great for my self esteem.

Bask in the beautiful sea of gray, savor the sweetness of 'maybe'.

Let 'should' and 'shouldn't' and 'should have' take a flying leap off a cliff!