Sweet, sweet Blog

I got a new cookbook under the Christmas tree also. It's a thick one! I guess it would have to be because it claims that all the recipes are low-calorie, low-fat and low carb. What? Is that possible? I've only perused the recipes at this point but so far ... looks like it's possible. Who knew? And get this, there are dessert recipes in this thing also. I crap you NOT.

I know I've talked about Splenda before (in the positive), but I'm gonna talk about it again. Here's why: this cookbook also sings the praises of Splenda. Here's what I found out (by reading this cookbook's intro and checking it's sources). There have been studies done that claim that Splenda causes some bad stuff in lab rats. But it turns out these studies are based on feeding these lab rats the human equivalent of over 10,000 teaspoons of Splenda a DAY. When those same lab rats were fed the human equivalent of 1,000 teaspoons a day, no side effects occurred. None. Not in any of the tests. So keep in mind that the average person eats about 8 to 10 teaspoons of sugar or sugar sweetener a day. THEN also ask yourself why there have been no studies done feeding lab rats 10,000 teaspoons of sugar or corn syrup a day. Right? The few studies that have been done comparing sugar to sweeteners ... you know what I'm gonna say, yes? The few studies that have been done comparing adverse effects of sugar V. artificial sweetener on the body prove that sugar is MUCH harder on the subjects bodies than the sweetener. Sorry kids. It's true. But by ALL means, if you can find a study that has opposite results, please let me know.

Stevia has some other issues that I'll talk about tomorrow. It doesn't cook well and other things. Whatever. I don't want to argue. Use Stevia or sugar or whatever you want. I'm just telling you that Splenda works best fr me.

Low-cal desserts ... HERE I COME!!

Santa Blog

Santa brought me a yoga mat. Santa brought me a yoga mat.

Santa Matt bought me a yoga mat to be more specific. I asked for it on a short list of possible gifts. And it was under the tree on X-mas morning. I TRIED doing crunches and balance exercises on my floor thinking that carpet would be enough of a cushion but ... it ain't. So now, all those muscle building exercises I have been promising ... will maybe happen. For sure ab exercises will happen as I have done those without the mat but found it painful. So I know I will do them now with the mat.

SO much drinking and eating and being merry during this holiday season that I have a lot of work cut out for me in January. Oy. But I've decided to look at it like something I am gonna enjoy. I DO think I'm gonna feel better overall so ... that I am looking forward to with gleeful anticipation.

I am going to have a healthy breakfast with a friend so I have to run. Just a few more days of the holidays and THEN I buckle down. Really.

Blogmates

Blgoimsm

Blog's chance

I love me some Ruby. I've been watching her show religiously on Style. If you don't know about her, here is a taste. Oh I love that southern flavor.

Walking in a blog

It is impossible to blog without electricity.

So listen, December is crazy and it is winning in the war of Blog V. Christmas. I'm gonna do my dangdest to come here and share on a regular basis, but I am afraid you may have to be satisfied with semi regular. We have been having electrical problems in the apt and the electricity kept blinking out and back on every hour or so. I'm SURE that's as maddening as water boarding. Seriously. Impossible to blog when your electricity keeps blinking out and your computer has to reboot every few minutes.

THEN we had an electrician here yesterday for 9 hours. That wouldn't usually be a problem but it was overcast so I was trying to do everything by candle light. You realize that colors don't look the same by candle light. Right? So wrapping presents was a push. It's VERY hard on the eyes to sign Christmas cards in the dark. Here's what I learned from my plight ... electricity is good.

Okay so I only have a minute and I just wanna talk about Weight Watchers cookbooks. WW as a program didn't really work for me as you may remember me telling you. If I have 15 points in a day I will eat them all in one sitting and not eat the rest of the day. That's not how my body works. I have to eat every couple of hours and I have to eat mostly protein. And i have to drink water and work out and ALL SORTS OF STUFF! So the program didn't work. But the COOKBOOKS ... they are really worth picking up and giving a try. I have used my most recent to cook up that stuff I bought at the store for a week of meals. Good stuff. REALLY good stuff. I made a couple of different pastas. I made pan fried catfish. I made flat bread sandwiches. Now ... to be honest, my eating has been out of control. I stepped on the scale today and I have gained five pounds in the last two weeks. That's some emotional stuff about my career and money and stuff so I am working it out. I can tell you that my recent weight gain is NOT about the recipes from the WW cookbook.

So I'm up 16 pounds from my goal and I have a party on Saturday and I need to fit into a dress I bought. So ... we'll see if that happens. I might need to lose a limb or something to make that happen. Do you remember in The Grimm Brother's Cinderella that the ugly step sisters cut off parts of their feet to make them fit into the glass slipper? True. Look it up. I bet the ugly step sisters were southern. Southern women will do ANYTHING to keep a man. I will qualify that by saying: that's how it was when I lived in the south. It's been 20 years. Maybe things have changed.

Anyhoo, I'll keep you posted.

Blog, Sweet Blog

Here's why I can't go to the market and plan meals for the week. Remember I told you I went and got stuff for three days. Well, I actually got stuff for FOUR days and then what happened? It turns out I have plans that take me out of the house four out of seven nights and another of those nights Matt had some chili because I was trying to finish up projects and didn't have time to cook. I do NOT understand the kind of life that allows for cooking more than twice a week. I mean, I remember thinking I never wanted to learn to cook because I thought it was too domestic and I never wanted to be that. But I met some cooks and ... turns out cooking can be creative and fun and almost zen. I don't meditate while I cook because then things would burn and be ruined and I would have wasted money and stuff. But It's very methodical and you must do it in a certain order and it's measured and ... controlled. And at the end you get a tasty treat. What's better than that?

Well, I froze the fish and beef and hope it will be as tasty when I get to it. FINGERS CROSSED. I also have to find time to do a trial run at my low cal chocolate cookies that I'm taking to a Christmas party. I find that with recipes, ESPECIALLY low cal recipes, you have to do a trial run because they never seem to turn out right the first time. You do it once and then you have to RE-do it and adjust it to taste better to your palate. Like ... add butter and sugar. NO! I'M KIDDING!! I find that Splenda works fine for my stuff. If you are afraid that Splenda is gonna cause cancer or make your arm fall off or cause a second head to grow or something, that's your cross to bear. I use Splenda instead of sugar and Smart Balance instead of butter and Eggbeaters instead of eggs and whole wheat flour. Sometimes I do half and half on eggs and flour, but even half and half saves calories. I'm not good with going without. I have to substitue.

Anyhoo, so much for the grocery store for the week plan. That's for people without a crushing social calendar.

Blog madness

Life has GOT to f'ing settle down. I cannot keep auditioning every f'ing day without a booking. I need to work or I need to have the day to get things done in my life. Are you listening, universe? Even doctors aren't on call all day, every day, even if they are on a different continent. I have had to come home early from vacations. NO, I'M NOT KIDDING!

This is the glamorous side of what I do. I don't even try to plan my day until about 8:00 pm the night before because I can get auditions for the next day as late as 7:30 pm. But after that I plan my day and I plan it out FULLY. You know what I'm sayin'. I fill it up. So to get a call saying, you have an audition TODAY ... for the SECOND DAY IN A ROW ... throws your life into a tail spin. And that's really not cool this close to Christmas ... and a yard sale.

Did I mention I'm having a yard sale? Go the the website and ask if you are interested. www.imperfect10.com

I promise I won't coat the products in stress.

All my kingdom for a blog

Okay so Oprah is gonna talk about getting fat. Again. And listen, I know she's embarrassed, but ... I, for one, am gonna feel really great listening to her. I don't have her reasons cuz I'm not one of the most sought after women on the planet. I am not jetting off to Africa at the drop of a hat and meeting with President Elects and stuff. But I also don't have personal chefs and a personal trainer to motivate and inspire me daily. So I'm REALLY excited to hear what she has to say. Cuz here's the thing, people who are thin or thinner LEAN that way. Like ... okay ...

On the Style Network's show, Ruby, about the 478 pound woman who is on her journey to lose weight ... one of her best pals is a gal who loves to cook and makes these artery clogging, heart stopping meals for herself and Ruby and their friends. Right? Fried this and cheesy that. But Ruby's friend ... is not a big girl. To be clear, her friend USED to be a skinny girl and now is just a regular gal but my point remains the same. Ruby's friend (who I believe is named Georgia), doesn't struggle and she eats heavily caloric stuff. Not only daily but for every meal. SOME people are predisposed to thinness and some to chubbiness.

The Biggest Loser. Okay so ... Oprah did a follow up on some of these people. For some of them, when they went back to normal life they gained a lot of the weight back. Because for some of us, ... me, JUST eating less doesn't work. It's an entire "program" of things. Eat X-number of calories and NO MORE, drink 10 glasses of water, eat every 2 - 3 hours, more protein than anything else, no booze, no sweets and work out five hours a week. THAT is not an average existence and not many of us can maintain that. Can you REALLY eat every 2 - 3 hours if you have a regular job? Can you REALLY work out five hours a week if you have a job AND kids? Can you REALLY cut out booze and sweets if you have a very full social calendar like I do? It's just not realistic. Also ... do you WANT to be a slave to those kinds of restrictions? I don't and I don't think Oprah wants to either.

We'll see. I can't read her mind even though ... I wish I could. I'd love to answer that Gail question once and for all. But I hope she knows that when she speaks, she is speaking to many of us and for many of us. I want her to shed the embarrassment. Poor thing. Wealthy folks have feelings, too. If she can't get over the shame ... I suggest she take a long, relaxing bath ... in hundreds and fifties and wash her hair with rare gems.

I'm feeling tension in my blog

No. I didn't get to muscle build but that's not my fault this time. Really. I'm not kidding. I was BALLS TO THE WALLS all f'ing day. ALL DAY! I didn't get on the treadmill until 8 pm. That's no joke. I'm not taking the heat on this one. December is kicking my ass and I am feeling anxiety about it so get off my back.

I went to the grocery. Well, I went to a COUPLE of groceries because I couldn't get everything I needed at one. I bought stuff for three meals and a dessert because I couldn't handle the amount of money it would cost to get everything for the week. This is an adjustment period. I made a southwestern chicken pizza and a salad and it rocked! 305 calories a slice - a BIG slice.

I'm getting waves of anxiousness so I really have to run. And by "run" I mean a full out sprint. I'm not walking fast or leisurely jogging. I'm full on, lung aching, ugly face sprinting. Here's the BAD news, stress makes you hold onto weight. I have to have a little chat with the almighty.

December is a beeee-atch. No?

Here's ONE of the things I have to do today. I am gonna do that thing I've heard of where you plan meals for the week and then go to the store and buy all the stuff you need. Right? I have never done this because usually I don't really know what I want to eat until that day or even ... that evening. And I have never wanted to fence myself into a meal because I bought all the stuff. Heaven knows that I have definitely done that thing where you go to the store and get the stuff and then decide AGAINST that meal when the time comes and then some of if not all of that stuff goes south and you never get that meal. Are you feelin' me? I had to throw in some mock gangstah cuz I'm feeling so domestic and frumpy with this talk. BUT IT'S GONNA BE WORTH IT! Not only am I gonna save calories, but I'm gonna save money and many, many guilt minutes. Just me again?

I'll let you know how it goes. I need to do this since I went a little nutty with the eating and drinking this weekend. OH! And the muscle building begins today! Really! I'll keep you posted.

Do blogs go potty in the jungle?

I don't mean to neglect you it's just ... life is testing me. My busy level is oft times untenable.

But anyway, I weighed in yesterday and the bad news is that I had only lost half a pound since last month. But the good news is that I went to Vegas and drank a lot and have not been diligent about my calorie counting and I lost half a pound!! Right? Accentuate the positive as Baloo would say in The Jungle Book.

Look, I do not suggest keeping your head in the sand like an ostrich although I don't even know if ostriches actually do that, but I suggest that when you are noticing the bad stuff and beating yourself up and feeling like a failure and worthless and all that, take a sec, take a breath and ALSO take a long look at the good stuff. Cuz, listen, don't you find when you are looking at your failures that you feel like you just want to put on your comfy jammies, go to bed and cover up and sleep and dream happy dreams? You don't feel inspired to get up and get out and go accomplish something. Right? Or some feelings similar. So focusing solely on the things you are NOT and the things you CANnot and the things you HAVE not done or feel you will never do ... how is that helping? Right? So don't ignore the stuff that needs to be changed or worked on, but give yourself your due. If you don't take the time to realize everything that makes you unique, you're NEVER gonna be able to change the things that are making you feel sleepy.

Accentuate the positive. And don't forget to do something for yourself. Preferably something fun. If you are always doin' stuff for others ... that's too long a conversation for this posting. I'll go on and on and on about that next time. Can you wait?

Blogs can be thankful, too

Miss me? Okay then. Whatever. I thought you might miss me. My mistake.

Vegas was really fun. It was White Trash weekend, apparently. The UP side of that is Matt and I got treated like royalty. We were nicely dressed, we said please and thank you, we tipped and we had ALL of our teeth. This meant our waitress was always around with refills and a smile. The bartender didn't charge us for drinks sometimes. Our waiter stood and chatted with us and told us his life's story. The cabbies complimented us and always took the short route. One even dropped us off at the VIP entrance that we would never have known existed if we hadn't been there on White Trash weekend. So it was cool.

We ate at Boa Steakhouse and I had the Thanksgiving special thing they had. I even ate the Brussels sprouts and I HATE Brussels sprouts. Here's the great thing about eating out on the holidays. There are no leftovers in my kitchen and in my refrigerator calling to me late at night to come in and lovingly eat them all up. There is no clean up. And I only eat the one plate of food at a meal. I don't go back for seconds. And thirds. It was cool! Expensive, but cool. We saved money on the room and had a small gambling budget so ... we were cool with the price tag of the meal. Did I mention no leftovers?

Got my MonaVie in the mail. Matt and I are doing this three month thing and then getting our blood work done so I'll let you know if this acai berry works it's magic.

Now it's time to get my act together and get going on Christmas. Right?