What I’m Listening To

Florence and the Machine – “Only For a Night”

Florence and the Machine – “Spectrum”

Florence and the Machine – “All This and Heaven Too”

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What I Ate Wednesday

Happy second day of 2013! I know everyone says this at the beginning of every year, but I can’t believe that when I write “2013” that’s actually the current year. But this year I really can’t believe it. I’ve spent so much of the last year planning and laying the ground work for things I want to do in 2013 that I can’t believe it’s finally here. It’s both exciting and terrifying.

I haven’t done one of these What I Ate Wednesday posts in a while. Since I eat so many of the same foods (overnight oats for breakfast, granola bar for a morning snack, piece of chocolate after lunch, fruit as an afternoon snack, fruit after dinner, and a small piece of dessert after dinner) every single day (which I love) I think posting a full-day of eats is boring. Which is why I’m posting the recipes I’ve made this week.

First up How Sweet Eats’ Super Easy Creamy Tomato and Chicken Baked Penne. I am really enjoying this. It was super easy to make and has a great flavor. I will say I wish I had cut the chicken into smaller pieces. And it is kind of watery, I left the mixture simmering in the skillet for a minute or two in hopes of thickening it up, but no luck. That said, it still tastes good and it reheated fairly well.

Next up is Nutritionella’s BBQ Black Bean & Brown Rice Burgers. These are seriously amazing. Hands down my favorite bean burger I’ve ever made. I put my burger on a Trader Joe’s bun (I love their buns and they’re only about 110 calories each) and topped it with spinach, cheddar cheese, onion, ketchup, and jalapenos. Really delicious. For lunch today I’m having the burger on top of a salad and hopefully that will be equally delicious.

Finally is The Pioneer Woman’s Zannie’s Black-Eyed Pea Dip. Last year I made Hoppin’ John, my first ever black-eyed pea recipe. I thought I’d keep the black-eyed pea tradition alive this year, but go for something a little different. This dip was good, but not really what I wanted it to be. I thought it was kind of more heat than taste and it was also very dry. I think I might have overcooked it and put it in too big of a pan, but still, I wasn’t too impressed.

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2013 New Year’s Resolutions

It’s that time again. New Year’s resolutions time! I am a huge, huge fan of New Year’s resolutions, I’m actually a huge fan of New Years in general. I know it’s arbitrary, but I like to use it as a way to evaluate my life and make goals from there.

Let’s revisit the goals I outlined at the beginning of 2012:

1. Lose the 10lbs I’ve gained since I was at my lowest weight. I will do this by continue going to kickboxing classes, going running, committing to working out while traveling, and by making smarter choices about what I eat.

HOW’D I DO: I didn’t lose 10lbs, but I lost a few pounds and I’ve definitely slimmed out due to kickboxing. I went to about 120 kickboxing classes this year, that’s once every 3 days. Considering I couldn’t go for 4.5 months when I hurt my wrist I think that’s pretty damn good. I pretty much stopped running, but I’m ok with that. I definitely did better about working out when traveling (although that’s fallen off towards the end of this year) and I think my food choices have been satisfactory.

2. Save money. I will reopen a separate savings account, stop using my credit card so much, and cut back on spending money on food and drinks.

HOW’D I DO: I really committed to this goal in the middle of 2012 with my austerity measures. That is still going well.

And repeat and add some smaller goals:

– Continue to regularly donate blood (did ok with this one, could have done better)
– Wear my contacts more often (I really want to do this, but they’re so painful!)
– Become a bone marrow donor (fail)
– Learn to knit a sweater (fail, but I couldn’t knit for so long due to my wrist injury so I’m giving myself an excemption)
– Clean out my purse and wallet each week (I actually forgot I made this a goal, so fail)
– Either take or plan a vacation (I didn’t, but I found a better use for my money)

Let’s move on to 2013!

1. Stop binging on food. Rather than making losing weight my goal I’m going to give myself one goal that’s tangible. I think I did pretty well on this for much of 2012, but in the fall, when I started seriously dropping weight, I started eating peanut butter M&M’s by the giant bagful. No more of that in 2013.

2. Keep up with my austerity measures. They’ve worked really well for me so far and I need to save, save, save in 2013 so why change what’s working?

3. Go to kickboxing 4-5 times per week. This is pretty much what I’ve been doing and I would just like to keep it up. It’s a great work out in addition to being a stress reliever and an outlet for all sorts of energy. When I’m away and can’t go to kickboxing I will bring workout clothes and do something, even if it’s just walking.

4. Get less annoyed at stupid strangers. I had stupid people so, so, so much. Unfortunately living in NYC I come across people I find to be stupid all the time (mostly on the subway). I have these crazy laws of etiquette in my mind and I get so annoyed when other people don’t follow them. But I don’t want to spend so much time annoyed. So I want to just take a deep breath and remember it’s better to be happy than right.

And I’m going to add in some smaller goals again:

– Donate blood regularly
– Get a new pair of glasses
– Become a bone marrow donor
– Learn to knit a sweater
– Clean out my purse and wallet each week
– Read at least 100 books

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