I Just Bought Myself A Valentine’s Day Present
Best doughnuts ever! And not because they taste good. The trick to the Krispy Kreme is heating them up just enough (10 seconds, maybe 15, depending on pre-heat temperature and condition) so that the entire doughnut can be compressed into a convenient, compact lump that will easily fit into your mouth all at one time, thus constituting one bite. I’ve already eaten two and my daughter has eaten one. This box will never make it to sundown much less all the way into next week.
What I really really have a massive craving for is the little Sausage Breakfast Burritos from McDonald’s with packs of that delicious Hot Picante sauce on every bite I take. But I have been far too lazy to drag my tired ass out of the house before 10 am to go get one. Or three. Krispy Kreme’s are always available for purchase at the local Jewel Food Store. And I can go at any time of the day. Still…those little tubes of tasty are calling me. I may have to break down and go in the morning. I’ve been really good with the food and sodium on my days of work, (10 total with 6 on the floor), and I don’t seem to eat enough to mess it up on my days off. Not because I’m really trying to eat less or even because I’m just so good like that. I’m pretty much hungry all the time now and my sleep/wake schedule is so off track, that I sleep for the hours I used to be awake and eating. I generally don’t eat when I first wake up and I don’t eat in the middle of the night. These days I feel like I am always “just waking up” and when I have an opportunity to get food, it’s the middle of the night. I almost, almost stopped at Taco Bell on my way home the other night, but I am not sure I can be a “midnight eater” and kind of afraid to find out if I could. Plus, I don’t want to risk the heartburn. And truthfully, it’s already 11 pm and the doughnuts are still here. Could this mean that I might actually be developing some kind of, healthy-diet-eating-plan for life?!? The kind where if you want something, you can have it, but in moderation. Have that donut. But only one. (Or two) I’ve heard of this phenomenon but never experienced it personally. Strange days are here. Strange days indeed. Most peculiar mama. Bet you didn’t think I’d end with that. And in a post about doughnuts. Night all.
It’s Not Just Another Day
It’s my day OFF!!
Finally! I can say stuff like that again!
In case you’ve missed all my increasingly depressing and dreary postings in the last few months, I have been on a full time job search for a job of any time. And all my hard work has finally paid off. I didn’t want to jinx anything by declaring myself employed until I actually signed papers and got a start date. That would be yesterday. First day, all official like. Signed, payrolled, name-tagged, uniformed, bio-scanned, physicaled, TB’d, and scheduled up. I have today off and then I work all weekend and next week and so on and so on for as long as they let me. I have a full time schedule with full time pay and benefits in a place I consider to be pretty awesome so far. Everything I wanted and a little bit more. I’m sorry, ahead of time, but if you ask where or any other details, I have to say that I can’t answer. It’s policy not to broadcast anything over the internet, and I wouldn’t do it anyway. But know that it’s great and I am happy! When I see you in person, I’ll gush and gush, as you know I can! For now let’s just say I have a job and I can start paying back the cost of my education and then some.
That picture above is the first specific nurse related newspaper/journal/magazine that I have received as a new RN. I was pretty excited to see my name on it and to be included in the nursing community. It’s the small things. And it’s perfect for today! I wish the weather was a bit better but as long as there’s no snow I am happy with it. And, in case you were wondering, my BP issue is still happening but the work doc cleared me, and gave me some tips to help me keep it down. Turns out, I may have been sabotaging myself with all the water I was trying to drink. I will be asking my doctor today about that in addition to the low sodium diet. It’s very confusing and there are no clear answers. It’s good because I will be even more compassionate now for my patients who take BP meds, or anything really, and I will try just a little bit harder to explain how they work so they never have to feel confused or frustrated like I do. And I received a lot of training for these medication things! Just goes to prove that you really do learn something new every day!
Alright, I need to go get some new shoes I can walk in, hit the doctor’s office and then head over to the school to see what place my daughter gets in the science fair this year. Last year was a first place so the bar is high! I have pics of the project and it’s safe to put up now that the competition is over. More later!
Flush! Flush! Flush!
Talk about beating a theme into the ground. This has nothing to do with toilets and everything to do with the fact that I need to flush my entire bloodstream and all the cells in my salty body with as much water as possible in the next few hours. I just had Olive Garden for lunch (thanks Beth!!) and even though I tried to eat as “good” as possible, it’s not good enough. Or possible.
First off, I would just like to say: WTF?? Why is there a twenty minute wait on a Tuesday at lunchtime?? The food is not that great. Every time I have ever gone I have had to wait. Seriously people, there are better places to eat! It’s one of the reasons, actually the main reason, why I never go there anymore.
Second, the menu. Out of curiosity I checked their web site to look for nutrition info. Most places, no matter how bad, pretty much list it somewhere these days, even if you have to search 7 pages and 15 links to find it. And usually the word “nutrition” is in the smallest possible print, at the very bottom of the corporate mission statement page. But no, Olive Garden had it listed right across the top of their site. One click, pick your item and read the chart. I guess they figure you already know what you’re getting into so here’s the ugly truth without a lot of fanfare and hoop jumping. Anyway, I was fine on the calories. I figured it would be medium to large damage to the daily intake. And I am pretty good at guess-timating the calorie counts these days. However, I completely and totally, utterly underestimated the sodium content of every single thing. Now I don’t believe for even one minute that Olive Garden has a team of Tuscan chefs in the kitchen cooking us up authentic Italian cuisine from the old country. But I didn’t realize how much preservative must be in those bags of entree’s to keep them fresh and microwave ready. Here’s the break down:
Garden salad (one serving) with the dressing: 290 calories. Ok. Not the worst. Sodium: 1530 mg. What??? One thousand, five hundred, thirty mg’s!!?? Seriously?? For lettuce?? That dressing packs a hell of a punch.
One breadstick: 150 calories. Cool, I estimated 200, plus 200 for the sodiums. Ha. Try 400 mg’s. Thank goodness I only ate one. We had marinara dipping sauce too. That was 70 calories and another 400 sodiums. I literally touched the bread to the sauce without scooping so I think I am fairly safe there. I maybe only ate, like, 200 mg’s.
Chicken Scampi, lunch portion (luckily): 740 calories and another whopping 1350 on the sodiums. Must be those peppers bringing the totals down. Thankfully, again, I didn’t eat all of it, but Jimminy Cricket, that’s about enough for today and tomorrow.
I also ate the Andes Mint they give you at check time. Not counting it at all. And at this point today, it doesn’t really matter.I know the internet always talks about dining out and the hidden dangers to your nutritional sound diet, but I never thought it would be relevant to me. Poop. (Ha. Did NOT even plan that.)
Alright that’s enough about that. I bet you didn’t think you’d be reading 500 words of my daily food journal. If you are still reading that is. Again, thanks for sticking to the end. Maybe you learned something. Or maybe you are shaking your head, muttering, “Dumbass. No wonder you have high blood pressure idiot. Why do I waste my time with this site??” Well, shake it off. It’s over now. Lesson learned. The food was still good. The company was even better! Good friends ya know?? I can risk a sodium stroke for one afternoon to hang out with one of my peeps. Next time we’ll try something else. And I’ll be sure to write it all here for you.
I need to go and fill up my water bottle. Got a 600 ml container that I need to drink about 2 more of. Maybe even three. I’m taking my son for some knee pads. He made the volleyball team!! So proud. So happy. And they are working his butt off with the practices. He will be a string bean by summer! A long tall drink of water like he’s always wanted to be. I’ll post pics if he lets me. Then I’m heading to Jewel for that good bread. (Hope I can snag at least one little loaf) Then home. Now this is turning into a laundry list, also something I need to finish. I think my descriptive phrases have been aging me lately. The bee’s knees. The cat’s pajamas. OPP. Click the letters if you want to read that little gem. I sound like an old lady. That reality truck hits too hard. I may post again later, but I may not. Tomorrow is an actual leave-the-house-and-join-the-world day. More good news to come. It’s still 55 degrees but getting grey and ready to rain. Have a great evening! Later.
Running With The Doodie
Well that made me laugh anyway. Theme of the morning: Doodie and Immaturity.
And bread! I love it. I could eat it for every single meal for the rest of my life and be happy. My favorite food is toast. Seriously. Toast and butter. That’s it. Any time, no matter how I feel. No matter what else is available. It’s my go-to. It’s also kind of bad for you. I know this. So before anyone jumps on my comments and scolds me for the loaf genocide I commit every day, I concede. I have to give it up. At least give it up as my main food source. It’s made with all kinds of evil “white” ingredients. White flours and white sugars, etc. And of course, if you don’t know this, it contains ALOT of sodium. As comparison, milk and butter have a near 1:1 ratio of sodium to calories. Oatmeal, on the other hand, has zero sodium for all its calories. Provided you eat only the original flavor and from the cylinder carton. The instant packets are still processed with it. It’s kind of strange. You can’t taste it, but it’s there adding mg’s where you don’t need them. Bread though, actually has more sodium than calories. I think that is just wrong and so disheartening. Being low sodium almost forces you to eat less calories because the foods that contain zero sodium naturally, are almost all naturally good for you. There are exceptions or at least things that people could fire back at me and argue. Dark chocolate has zero sodium (Check those labels though, because some companies slip in a 10 or 15 mg, and you have to pick your battles here) and isn’t made with milk. Which is an extra bonus for me because I avoid dairy like the plague. Milk chocolate does contain sodium and sometimes alot because milk has alot naturally. See how that works? I have been spending twice as long at the grocery store in the last few weeks, and going more often, because of all this label attention and the fact that fresh foods do not last as long as processed foods. I know it will get easier and faster once I am totally acclimated to the ↓Na Club.
Anyway, the point of this post was that bread up top has ZERO sodium. And it’s made with whole grains and stuff. Another entire subject I could write another paragraph about, because I have to switch to those too. Brown rice, brown breads, orange potatoes, wheat pastas and the like. I cannot confirm the “rightness” or nutritional level and benefit of the exact grains in this particular bread because I don’t know that food group well enough yet. But I think it says it’s made with whole grain wheat, which I think is the good stuff. I can confirm at a later date if anyone really cares as I am currently out of my supply. I’m still transitioning slow on the whole grain thing because white mashed potatoes are so delicious. And what’s better with Chinese food than white sticky rice? Oh yeah, weight loss and low blood pressure. But, to get back to this bread. At first I thought it was pretty gross. It is very noticeably without salt. It tasted bland and flavorless. Almost “flat” tasting. After eating it for a few weeks though, I find it to be quite delicious and grainy. It’s my new favorite bread in the whole world. And you can buy it at Jewel. That makes it available to quite a large population. Try it if you can find it.
Tip for the tasty: Buy one first to get used to it. Then when you love it like I do, buy all the loaves that they have whenever you go. It sells fast I have noticed. I have even purchased the uncut version. I’m just crazy out of control for that bread!
Here’s the big finish. Literally. Tying together the doodie part with the whole grain part. You will know you are eating whole grains when you can enjoy their nutty, crunchy, complex flavors going in. Toasting, spreading, chewing, swallowing. And then you get the chance to enjoy them all again on the way out. Sometimes good health is NOT pretty. Whole grains have shells, exoskeletons, kernels, a hard outer coating that we, as humans, cannot digest. They call it roughage. I call it proof.
I’m going out into the 55 degrees for some of that exercise stuff. Have a great afternoon!
Well It Sure Feels Like A Brand New Start
I know it’s not February first yet, but according to the air temperature it’s like a whole new season. We need to come up with some kind of phrase to identify this trend in unusual, possibly alarming, weather system changes. I can do 50 degrees all “winter”. I’ll even take the occasional one day snow storm followed by three days of melt. However my little daffodil buds are getting confused. Here’s a picture of them looking sad and sort of green-yellow in the grey and dirty dirt. The ground is not ready for them to sprout yet, but the heat says, “Come on up! The air is fine!” But it’s not.
I shall monitor their early progress for you. Via words and more pictures. Although be prepared for this site to take another sucky turn. As you know, I pride myself on posting just about every day with brilliant and insightful, meaningful, inspiring words and positive vibes and energy to you and the world abroad. Uh. huh. Well, I post every few days. And it’s almost always positive. That won’t change. The new issue is that I may actually have something else that I will need to be doing, full time, and for a good amount of money. Hint hint. Cough cough. Ahem. If I ain’t being too subtle here. Something worthy enough to give up my day job as resident blobber, blogger, desperately searching for an outside gig. I will let you know by the end of the week if I can finally change my Facebook status to: Works. Period. Anyway, February is always my lucky month for work related stuff. That’s when I got my last job too. It’s weird when stuff happens like that isn’t it?
I’m about to go get some food with the family and have a margarita. Just one. And it will be small. Well, smaller. We have an awesome place very close by. And I checked my med info. Moderate alcohol is ok. One drink every week or two will probably be just fine. And FYI, in case you were wondering, I have my next doc appt. this week to check on those meds, and even though it seems unlikely, I really think I feel better. Like, not sick feeling. Clear headed and without any throbbing or eye and temple pain. Maybe that BP was killing me. Sometimes drinking the kool-aid isn’t always a death sentence. Hard lesson to learn. In just a few days, I have tried to overhaul my sodium intake and step up the exercise regimen. We, me, everything, that you eat for convenience or that comes in a processed package is LOADED with mg’s and mg’s of that sneaky sodium. I spent my last few days buying some snazzy new jeans and t-shirts to transition myself slim again. Thanks to the new spandex and technologically advanced textile manufacturing, my jean size didn’t change! And no one will ever see the tags that say “high stretch fabric” or “extreme tensile strength materials”. Those labels are on a big old garbage truck heading for the dump. And I purposely shopped for colorful fruits and vegetables today. I think I shall be more boring to hang out with, but, I shall be hanging out a lot longer. Alright, one more picture because I like to take pictures of the skeleton trees. Later.
