Love for Edamame & the Joy of Flushing a Toilet

The past week has been very eventful! I feel good about what I have accomplished, I'm staying positive about 2011 (I realize it's only 14 days in, but that's no reason not to celebrate the optimism!), and I have been reminded how blessed I am in all that I have in this life.

Last weekend, Scott & I dove right into my resolutions. We took on our first house project--repainting the guest room. Before moving into our house, we picked out several paint samples and laid them out in our apartment. We held them up to furniture and even up to themselves so we could get a feel for how each room would lead to the next. My favorite color in the mix was called "Goldenrod." We chose it for the guest room. I was most looking forward to this color and I felt it would be a happy, vibrant color--not too light, not too dark. Unfortunately, the colors on those little slips of paper don't always translate well into 4 full walls of color. This ended up being my least favorite of all the colors. It was too bright, involved multiple coats and STILL needed touching up, and was just overwhelming! I denied it for months because I wanted very much to like it, to rekindle that excitement I had when I first looked at the swatch, but I finally came to terms with the fact that it just wasn't going to happen. I hated it. There--I said it. Upon admitting this to Scott, I found that he hated it, too. So, we ventured out to Lowe's and picked out a new, much more subtle, color. We ended up with something called "Barefoot Beach," which turned out like a soft silverish gray. We painted the room last Saturday, and I dare say I love it! It's simple, subtle, and doesn't assault you upon entering. It still needs some touching up, but we will save that for a later date. Also added to my wish list--curtains and maybe some new decor for the walls in that room. OH--we also bought new sheets for our bed and the guest bed and they look GREAT with the new walls! :)

On Sunday I decided I would jumprope. I remember loving it as a child, and even a teenager. When I was 14 I took Kickboxing and we would always jumprope to warm up. I was actually really good at it then, which is surprising given how uncoordinated I am. I read from a friend's blog that 10 minutes of jumprope is equal to 30 minutes of jogging. I googled it--it checked out. So, I was all geared up and ready to jump some rope! It was in the 20's outside, but I bundled up and figured I would be okay since my heart rate would be up. After only 2 minutes or so, I thought I might DIE!! My lungs were bursting..and I'm not exaggerating...much. I tried to take a break, walk around, and try again. When that didn't work, I decided to just jump around without the rope so I could go at a slower pace. I was determined to complete my 10 minutes! I probably got through about 6 minutes and I had to stop. I tried to walk around so that my heart rate wouldn't go from racing to resting, but I couldn't catch my breath. I went inside and laid down and tried desperately to breathe regularly. After about 5 minutes of gasping and weezing, I was able to get up and move around again. I was still weezy and coughing a lot the whole rest of the day. I suddenly had chest conjestion and a terrible cough. It was crazy! Scott thinks it was b/c my lungs weren't used to the cold weather--and, of course, b/c I'm horribly, embarrassingly out of shape. I'm still interested in jumping rope, but I will take it much easier in the future and probably wait until it's a tad bit warmer outside. In other workout news--I've been lifting weights while watching TV at night and yesterday I went to the RAC and worked out on the Eliptical machine for 30 minutes, did some obliques workouts, and lifted some weights for about 10 minutes. It was a great workout and I did not feel like death afterwards--this is the goal.

In addition to working out more, I've been doing a pretty good job eating healthier. We've tried lots of yummy healthy recipes, and I've actually enjoyed cooking them! I've decided I don't dislike cooking after all! I do prefer to cook when the recipe was my idea because it gives me some ownership of the meal. Before, we were only cooking things Scott thought up, so naturally it didn't feel right for me to take charge cooking them. Some of our tasty meals have included: roasted chicken, sweet potatoes and roasted bananas, chicken burritos w/ corn & blackbeans, 5 bean soup, edamame, and TRIPLE CHOCOLATE COOKIES! I will have to share this cookie recipe with you all. It calls for canellinni beans, which made me fear a similar disaster to the blackbean brownies, but with all the chocolate and the delicious egg whites and splenda whipped tasty delight...how could it fail? They were wonderful. Word to the wise (or not-so-wise if you are like me), PARCHMENT PAPER does not equal WAX PAPER! I didn't know. The wax paper caused our kitchen to get all smokey, while probably contaminating us with some kind of free radical that will later cause unsightly wrinkles and some form of uncureable cancer, and--even worse--our cookies stuck to the sheet and would not come up! We had to scrape at them and avoid the bottom layer. Still--delicious! :)

Oh, and did I mention edamame?? Yes, but it bears repeating! Have you tried it? Have you?? You MUST! So tasty! It's full of protein, fiber, and other super healthy things! More than trying to eat less or lower calories foods, I'm trying to focus on eating healthy foods. By that I mean, foods with fiber, protein, potassium...less sodium and cholesterol. Yes, calories are a consideration, but mostly I'm trying to feed my body good stuff, rather than depriving it of things. So far--so good! I weighed in this morning and have lost .2 lbs since Sunday! Okay...that's hardly worth reporting, and I probably gained it right back with breakfast, but any progress is good! And this week was tough b/c I had some unhealthy things like molten chocolate cake and Taco Bell...more on that to come! I'm planning to weigh myself every Friday morning, and hopefully start seeing some real progress.

Last Friday night was date night. :) Scott and I went to Savannah to use our Chili's gift card and see Black Swan in the theater. All around a good time. I printed out the nutritional values for the menu at Chili's and was HORRIFIED!! Even the "healthy" things were not so great. Now that I'm more aware of what I've been putting in my body, it's no wonder I've gained so much weight these past 3-4 years! But, it was date night and we had free money and it was CHILI'S...so...I had to get the chocolate cake! At least we split it! I won't tell you how many calories that is...but if you care you should look it up. You should probably sit down first!

Oh, how could I forget? We were ICED IN on Monday!! Now, I know I have no right to complain when Atlanta has been snowed in all week long, but Statesboro isn't used to this kind of weather! Well, neither is Atlanta....hmm...well I'm going to complain just for the sake of complaining, K? :) The fact that it wasn't safe to leave our house on Monday wasn't all that bad. In fact, there are many days I wish I could just stay home all day with the hubby and the kitty. Sunday night when we heard work was canceled, we rejoiced! It was a great feeling! When we woke up the next morning with no power or water...not such a great feeling. When we spent all day not being able to flush our toilets or turn on our heater...not great feelings! And the power was out all the way until the next afternoon! Yep, over 24 hours without power OR water! We ended up taking a shower at the RAC Tuesday after work since neither of us had showered since Sunday (ew!). But again we rejoiced when we returned home that night to find a glowing beacon of light coming from our window! We thanked Jesus for electricity and the people who worked on it, we blessed our tacos, and we ate while watching Psych! Oh yeah, we picked up Taco Bell b/c we didn't know if we would have power to cook. See? There are good reasons for my poor decisions! ;)

In other news--this Sunday we are hanging out with the Harveys and I am super excited! So far so good on the hanging out with friends resolution! :) Unfortunately Scott has to work Saturday & Monday (even though I have Mon. off b/c of Martin Luther King Day). Looks like I'll be cleaning, shopping, and doing laundry alone this weekend. Oh, speaking of laundry, we get to buy a new washer soon b/c ours keeps leaking. The rejoicing continues! ha-ha...

Umm...what else? Oh! I finished Knowing God: Knowing Myself and am on to my next non-school related book. Looks like I'll be getting 2 in this month since school hasn't started back yet! :) I'm now reading The Short Second-Life of Bree Tanner. It's a spin-off type book from the Twlight series. Bree was mentioned briefly in Eclipse. I bought this book at Goodwill a while back and forgot about it. I thought it would be a good quick read and keep me motivated to continue reading for fun! I'm about halfway through and am enjoying it thus far.

I guess that's it! Resolutions progressing, thankfulness for electricity and flushing toilets commencing, munching on edamame regularly, and enjoying this thing we call life! :) Have a great weekend everyone!

~Christy~