Can't Believe I forgot...

Don't know that anyone else really cares, but when I mentioned my weight loss a couple of weeks ago, I forgot to mention that I also cut about 13" of hair off. My hair went from being middle of my back, almost to my waist long to being about an inch below my ears long.

It was somewhat drastic, a little impulsive and traumatic. I donated my ponytail to Locks of Love. I'm having dinner with Bruce tonight and he has no idea that I cut my hair (even thought I did it two months ago and he's scheduled dinner and cancelled it like six times since then). That should be fun and interesting!

Day 3 - 7 and then some

August 19, 2009 - The rest of my eating at home experiment didn't turn out the way I thought it would and I'm confused as to whether it was a success or a failure, so I'm going to call it a draw. On Wednesday I had a date and on Saturday I had a date (both with a new gentleman that we are calling Other Justin so as to avoid confusion between him and our friend Justin), so I ate out, but I didn't pay for it, so does that count or not count? Other than that, I bought lunch one day and everything else I ate at home, which is why I am declaring it a draw. If anyone wants to argue with me, please leave your argument in the comments section.

Tomorrow we have the company boat party which will entail me spending 8 hours on a boat with the guys from our offices (both NY & CA) drinking beer before taking a car to the airport and getting on an airplane to go visit my dad for a couple of days. Anyone in the ATL area, we are having a pool party on Saturday! A super huge shout out to my friend Liz who is staying at my apartment and watching my cat for me while I am away. I really, really appreciate it.

In other news I am still trying to fund raise for my Avon Breast cancer walk. I need to raise a bit over $1200 in less than 60 days, so if anyone wants to contribute, there is a link on the left hand side of the screen. Every little bit helps! If everyone who reads this blog donated $5 - well, I'd probably have $5, but it would still help!

Other than that, I am ready for my nap now and I cannot wait to go home and pack for my trip. See you next week!

Day 2: Iffy but okay...

August 12, 2009 - So yesterday I ended up running out and grabbing something to bring back to my desk but other than that everything else was eaten at home. The grilled shrimp I made on Monday night was even better as chilled leftovers than it was originally (note to self - grill and chill that stuff in the summer time, it makes the warm apartment seem cooler for a moment). I was reading an article yesterday about how keeping your apartment a little warmer in the summer and a little cooler in the winter (besides being good for the environment and your energy bills) could also help you lose weight because the slight discomfort of temperature makes you not want to eat. I don't know if that is really true and I can't remember where I saw that article, but I would be curious to know if other people find this to be the case. Happy Wednesday!

Day 1: Eating at home.

August 10, 2009 - Day 1 of eating at home is going very well. I had breakfast, lunch and dinner all at home. For breakfast I had a cinnamon raisin mini-bagel with butter, for lunch I had tomato basil tuna on whole wheat crackers and for dinner I had shrimp kabobs marinated in lemon and thyme with panini bread and olives and for desert I am having champagne sorbet with raspberries. I went to Whole Foods after work and stocked up on enough food to feed a small country. I could probably keep all of Brooklyn in fruit for a week. No reason not to eat at home now, though. Woo-hoo!

Eating At Home vs. Eating Out (which is EVIL)

August 6, 2009 – Since my birthday I’ve been making a concerted effort to get my financial house (so to speak) in order. I’ve started putting money into saving every month and watching my spending. By and large, I’ve been pretty successful. The one place where I have consistently and predictably fallen short is eating out. In New York it is easier to eat out than it is to buy groceries and eat at home. Here are my theories on why this is:

• No car: You have to carry everything and/or take an unwieldy and completely ugly cart.
• Time: It is hard to find everything at one grocery store (we don’t have a whole bunch of large grocery stores here unless you are lucky enough to live near one of the Whole Foods or Traders Joes, which I don’t), so you end up having a lot of specialty shops. I have a little grocery store near my house that is okay for basics, but you don’t really want to buy meat of any kind there and you have to check the dates on everything or there is a good chance you’ll go home with milk that is so old it’s practically cottage cheese.
• Time Part II: Once you get home, the last thing you want to do is prep and cook a meal, and here since they deliver EVERYTHING it’s even easier to justify ordering in.
• Climate Control: There are certain things you just can’t make in NYC in the summer time if you live in an apartment without central AC. This includes many baked goods, breads and pastas, and more.

However, I eat more healthy foods when I eat at home and I really actually enjoy cooking, so this needs to change. This weekend, I am going to sit down and plan out meals for the next couple of weeks and try and eat at home AND take my lunch to work at least 5 out of 7 days per week. I will chronicle that here so that someone (anyone?) can see how I’m doing with this. I will attempt to update this on Sunday, August 8, 2009 with my menu for next week. I will be taking a brief hiatus from this experiment on August 21 – 25, 2009 when I go visit my dad (also, if anyone knows someone who wants to feed my cat while I’m gone, that would be great!).