health – kristilynk

January, what?

Gah! I can’t believe you’re almost gone. I wanted to do something fun with you, like get out of town.

Weekend in the pines or a day trip to the snow, a hike somewhere new. None of that happened.

I did start training very early for a half marathon and have stuck to it every week running 3 days a week and increasing mileage according to the Hal Higdon training half marathon training plan for a novice.

I bought myself a pair of sweet new running shoes. Poor associate at the shoe store, he worked hard for his commissions. I swear I tried on 8 pairs of shoes, 3 different brands. I wanted Saucony but they didn’t have my size in any fun colors. Hoka was next but same… no fun colors. I broke down and got the Brooks. I was reluctant because for some reason I think of old”er” people when i think of Brooks. I thought they were along the lines of New Balance 🤣 but look at how cute they are!

Ask me how fast I can go in my new shoes!

Not only do I love the color but they are the most comfy fluffy running shoes I’ve ever worn. I’ve out 21 miles in them so far.

Dry January has been super easy for me. Today marks day 34. Interesting to note I have not dropped a single pound 🤨

Last weekend I went to a bar to watch some live music and hang out with a couple of friends. On the way to the bar I drank a CBD drink. I swear by these, Mad Tasty

I feel chill after I drink one of these and I can hang out for like 4-5 hours in one place! Unheard of, for me anyway. I wonder if I can buy stock in this. 🤓 I get them at my local Total Wine, I grab 2 every time. I stayed up way until 1am- who am I? 🤣🤣

I went out for pizza and I didn’t get my basic pepperoni. I tell you this Holy Shitake Mushroom from Mellow Mushroom was unbelievably delicious. I may have had a slice for breakfast the next day.

So although I did not get out of town this month I did manager to do some things not in my usual routine.

I’m ready for February.

First Friday

First Friday of 2024. I’m spending it at home, with Mork. We just got done walking the neighborhood, it was only 1.70 miles but took us 45 minutes because… BEAGLE.

The max amount of time I can kind of jog with him is like 15 seconds.

I dropped Jason off at the airport this morning. He’s headed to CSP to spend the weekend with a couple of his good friends. That was a fun ride to the airport lol. My car told me I had about 44 miles left before I had to get gas so the gas light was on and made Jason extremely nervous. Yes I am that one person who likes to live on the edge and push my car to it limits to see how far I can go on a tank of gas. This particular tank of gas lasted me 479 miles. I made it to the airport and almost home.

It was a full day of work but it was at home and drama free – love that!

I’m on day 10 of dry January. Yes, I’m aware that it is only day 5 of January but I started early. So after work I went to a Pilates class hoping it would curb my craving to drink alone tonight.

I don’t know about you guys, but I love to drink alone. In fact, I prefer to drink alone I can get stupid and nobody is here to judge me. My dog doesn’t care. But I am doing dry January so I’m not going to drink alone and instead I took a Pilates class. That did not help I came home. I still wanted to drink so I took Mork for a walk.

That helped. I’m good now. At the moment, I’m thinking about how I’m going to do my 1st outside street run tomorrow. I’m supposed to do 4 miles and I want to give running outside a shot, I’m scared but what’s the worst that’ll happen? I get tired and my shins and ankles hurt and I have to walk home? Or better yet… I can always stop and get an Uber. 😂

I’ve run 8.5 miles since January 1 – 13.1 miles seems impossible in one day 😅

I am excited to see how this progresses.

Hope you all have an amazing weekend!

You can’t really “make”time.

There are so many things we (humans) want or need to do. It’s said…a lot… you want it you have to MAKE the time to do it. There is no way to MAKE time. You have to change the way you use your time. This will take sacrifice or a game of if I do this I can’t do that. Example. I want to wake up an hour early to workout. I won’t because if I do, I can’t get that extra hour of sleep.

I’ve had a great day of “self care”. Yoga, manicure, putting around the house (ok really I was smudging the house with sage), took a stroll on the treadmill, did some journaling. It was lovely.

To do all of the things today, I had to sacrifice chilling at home with Jason and the muppet babies, my dogs for those of you who don’t know me. To write this random post, I’m sacrificing time. It means I’ll be late. We are having guests over and I still need to shower. I don’t want to so… here I am.

So I started this workbook called, “the artists way”. It told me to write three pages, long hand, each morning. It basically garbage. Not the idea, the idea is pretty cool especially because I’m writing about nothing. Only random thoughts, it’s pretty freeing, you wake up and write a few pages of all of the nonsense rolling around your brain first thing in the morning.

Some of the exercises are pretty intense if you want them to be. I don’t so I will cherry pick and sugar coat the things I don’t want to address in my mind. It’s week one. We’ll see how far I get. 😆

There’s Always Tomorrow..

Motivation and self control are playing a mean game of “keep away” from me!

Good lord, eating right, exercising and being nice are difficult!

My story is the same as everyone else’s ~ “I was doing so good” and then…. There is always an “and then” isn’t there?

November through March.. I had not had any fast food and I was a Bikram Yoga going fool!

And then… as I mentioned in a previous post…the eczema issues arose..I’m still battling it BUT it is not as horrible as it was. I am still afraid to sweat which makes it difficult to not be bummed out and shovel food in my face. I mean serisouly..I don’t necessarily have to sweat and heat up horribly to burn some calories..I just need to eat better and move around..to start again, right?

Well, that’s when motivation and self control come into play..and by play..I mean they are completely messing with me right now.

Today, I started out with excellent intentions..I had an Herbal Life cafe mocha healthy meal shake plus a couple of protein scoops added some ice and was off to work..Happy as a clam ** uh oh..side bar..who knows how happy a clam is and why is this a saying?? **

The plan was also to have a shake for lunch, with almond milk…

and then I would make a decent meal for dinner..

And then…

The boss man announced, “Pizza’s here”!

Pizza is ALWAYS good but when it is from Roasati’s ??? Its almost irresistible. And what I mean by almost..I mean COMPLETELY irresistible.

I ate what is featured above PLUS…two more of the little slices.

On a brighter note..at least I didn’t drink the shake too!! 😉 You know me…always looking for a silver lining. 😀

There’s always tomorrow!!

Puff Pastry..

My friend and fellow blogger, Kim, shared with me another blog which we now both follow. I love to “hate” this girl..she’s like Barbie…the *&tch* has everything… I put “hate” in quotes because I don’t hate her..Its a jealousy thing..

She’s all about the traveling, cooking, dining and fashion but in a humble not so pretentious manner.. and to top it off..I’m pretty sure she gets paid to do all of this through her blog..wha???

Anyway, I will not bore you with my mental issues…today anyway 🙂

This back story has a point..FOOD! Rosie turned Kim and I onto this delight!

Now I will just tell you up front. Mine did not turn out as pretty as hers OR Kims’ for that matter…

First issue..I had to to find out, what is Boursin cheese? Turns out..it’s just like Rondele soft cheese but you get less and pay more 🙂 Kim says its better but my memory is just not that good. Maybe, if I had them side by side I would be able to taste the diff but from my memory (my memory…not sayin’ much) .. it tasted the same.

Found it and bought it!

Second issue..where the heck am I to find puff pastry? I don’t even know what that is. I thought it was the pillsbury dough boy stuff that comes in a pop can..Again, I had to use the phone a friend option..

Found it! It was hiding in the frozen pie section.

The mayo has nothing to do with this recipe so please just ignore… 😉

Third issue: Really Bashas?? You don’t carry Heirloom Tomotoes?? I had to go to Sprout’s ~ why is it that non of the grocery stores carrier EVERYTHING we need? It never fails. For those of you who say..Wal-Mart does..I say NO..you do not buy produce at Wal-Mart..

After a long day at work, long drive home, two grocery store trips I finally got home and started in on putting dinner together.

It only took about 30 minutes for the puff pastry sheet to thaw out. I kept busy prepping the kitchen and then cutting up romaine lettuce, purple onion, cucumbers and tomatoes for a salad.

Yes, it took me 30 minutes.

Once it was thawed, I spread the Boursin (not really that easy so be careful not to tear the pastry sheet)

Pre-heat oven to 420

Cut tomatoes

Put them on top of the cheese on top of the puff sheet and don’t forget the fresh basil!

Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and just a teeny sprinkle of sea salt.

Pop it into the oven for 20-25 minutes ~ Now…For me, I think 420 at 20-25 minutes was too much.. Look..my edges are not pretty:

It may be that I used tin foil instead of parchment paper so the tin made it cook hotter?

In any event..it was REALLY good! The husband loved it too!! WINNING!

Off to Fat Camp!

It is astounding at how quickly the universe and her sneaky ways can trip you up and make you feel like you have fallen flat on your face.

Since November of last year I have been doing so well at eating right things, cutting out horrible habitual habits * aka nasty smoking habit * exercising, drinking a ton of water (well for my standards) and in general just being good to myself.

All was rolling along great until one stupid day…nasty nasty flare up of eczema! Absolutely ruined everything..slooooowed my roll. I had to stop going to the Bikram room – heat only agitates this stupid skin allergy, I became completely obsessed with “how to fix it”, naturally of course.

In the meantime..me completely stressing about it is doing nothing but making the problem worse. I would show you pictures but it’s just gross..seriously..google eczema if you’ve never seen it before. Not only is it gross but it itches beyond belief. Not a fun time..

Long story short..I ended up having to take 10 days of steroids. Here I am three weeks later and my exercise habits are NIL…AND..I intensly crave nothing but food that is so not good for me. Like cheeseburgers and cupcakes. That is all I want to eat.

In fact 🙂 Just the day before yesterday I was driving back from lunch, turned my head to the right and spotted HEAVEN ! CLICK IT …I DARE YOU!

I ordered a strawberry cheesecake cupcake and immediately fell into addiction. I went back the next day 😦

They didn’t have the strawberry cheesecake one so I chose the tiramisu hoping I would hate it. I was wrong it was just as moist and bursting with sweet deliciousness as yesterdays. It’s confirmed..I officially have a problem and must report to fat camp immediately!

Be prepared for a change in posts…wine intake must sadly be reduced, no more cupcakes and I MUST get off my squishy butt~!

Help!

I have no idea what is wrong with me! I have scheduled myself to a pretty good yoga schedule..Monday, Wednesday Saturday and Sunday. I’ve been doing pretty good with this until ohhhh yesterday..

On the way home I decided it would be brilliant to pickup some pork fried rice. Of course I needed egg rolls and crab puffs to accompany, right?

** Picture stolen from the internet but I had to give the visual…pork fried rice is delicious **

The idea was for me to go home, feed the family, change, go to yoga, come home and eat me a little bit of yum yums..

I’m sure you can guess what happens next…

It started out pretty innocently, I will just have one little teensy flavorful crab puff. I told the family, they need not wait for me to eat because I would not be home until after 20:00

I lost all self control once Jason started stirring hot mustard into the fried rice bowl… Quickly…I got my own empty dish and DUG IN!

Guilt set in after I swallowed the last bite of that SECOND egg roll and I rolled myself onto the couch with stuffed belly. Not only did I miss my ninety minutes of self torture but I ate entirely too much.

No longer guilt ridden but so confused. Today, for dinner….I want CUPCAKES.

Help!! What is wrong with me??? UGHHHHH..

This had to be documented…

Since the end of November 2013, I have been involved in some serious self torture. The people of Bikram say, we endure ninety minutes of torture so we do not have to spend ninety years in torture or something like that…basically suck it up for an hour and a half a few days a week..do the twenty six poses to the best of your ability – but with proper alignment – and the benefits you reap are endless.

I am not hear to preach or try to bring all of you to the “dark side” (Although..really…you should try it..I feel AMAZING..skin so soft, lungs are clear, I feel strong and tall even though I am only 5’3)…but again..I tell you..I promise I am not here for this..

I am here to say..OH..MY..GOODNESS.. I woke up at 430 this morning and made it to a hot yoga sesh at 530..IN THE MORNING…BEFORE work!!

For WEEKS now I have been hopeful and planning and setting alarm clocks only to shut them right off and go back to sleep.. On this day..I DID IT..

Admitting, I am pretty sure the only reason I was able to do so was because I stuffed my belly full of pasta, ice cream and honey fried bananas and fell asleep at 830 the night before…

None the less…I DID IT and I have not been able to wipe the grin off my face this entire day.

Bag packed with clothes for the day, mat, towel and water in tow I headed out at 0515!! Thankfully class is not too far from home: If you live in the area and you’re into self torture…come take a class with me!! The studio is new”ish” to our area, clean and the people are so friendly and encouraging!

http://www.bikramyogapeoria.com/

I don’t know if I will ever be able to make a 530 am class again but I’ll keep trying because this feeling of accomplishment is almost as good as the feeling I feel after I am done with class.

Namaste…bitches 😉