Sleeping Connor

The way Connor sleeps has been fascinating me.  Questions like:

• How can he NOT have a crick in his neck?
• How can THAT be comfortable?
• Is he dreaming?
• I didn't realize dogs' heads can BEND that way?!

has occurred to me on more than one occasion.  And so, I thought I'd share some of his sleeping positions.

First one up...I call this The Twister

Second one...The Superman

The Beggar...

The Chillin'

The Curler

The Noser....

Wha?

My spethal boy...

The Broken Spine...

The Superman...revised...

Yeah...those are it for now...

Cinnabon

Gave in to the dark side...

Teeth Whitening

Maybe I should have taken before and after photos

Day Sixteen: Pedicure

Inadvertently got orange-looking nail polish. It looked red in the bottle :(

Day Fifteen: Blue Crabs

Posted retroactively.

Forgot to take the pics!!

Pooch Plunge at the River Rock Swim Club

I thought I'd share some pictures and videos of the fun that Bella and Connor had at the River Rock Swim Club.

For the most part, I think Bella liked swimming more than Connor.  She would actually go follow us around in the pool whereas Connor had to be "persuaded" before he dove in.  He would have rather just played with all the dogs outside the pool.  Having said that, I think he swam better than Bella did.  Bella cheats and walked on her hind legs lots of the time when we were at the deeper end.

Day Fourteen: Pooch Plunge

Connor and Bella had a damn good time :)

Day Thirteen: Bella's Reflection

Day Twelve: Gift Bags

Posted Retroactively.

Finally found sparkly gift bags.

Day Eleven: Pumba's Bed

I blame Connor.



And just seconds after I took this pic, he took it as a hint and began...gnawing.  Here he is, caught in the act:

Day Ten: Baies

One of my favorite candle scents

The Fates are Against Me

Morning weight = 146.4 lbs

More like James really.  As in the one who is against me in this quest for weight loss.  This past week, he has been weak-willed and has initiated various cheats to our Medifast program.  From Taco Bell, to Remington Grill, Bojangles, and the blizzards of DQ.  What's a girl to do?  Of course, I did my own initiation in the form of buttered popcorn at the movies. *major drool*  And I did suggest that we celebrate at Brasa's this weekend...

And to top it off, we won a gift basket full of goodies from our wedding caterer.  Yummy...

Day Nine: Gift Basket!

Our wedding caterer rocks!  We won all these goodies from Barclay Catering and Event Planning. They had a gift basket giveaway and I won their first one :)

I super dove into this chicken salad when I got home.  And the cheese plate too ofcourse.

Day Eight: Labor Day weekend.

No photos :(

Day Seven: Dinner with Denise

@Tony's Oyster Bar and Restaurant

Day Six: Dessert at Brasa

Celebrating!

Day Five: Green Tea

Giant cup of Teavana powdered green tea before bed time. I hope I can sleep tonite

Day Four: Lana addison

First of three dress fittings

I Love How Connor Sleeps

Day Three: Fire Sauce

Taco bell gave us a handful of Fire Sauce today.  I think I'm set for life.  All this for one taco.

Baby Octopus Salad

I wanted to share a pic of the baby octopus salad I had today from Akashi, one of my favorite local Japanese restaurants.  This lil guy and the seaweed salad he (or she) sits on was my lean and green meal for the day.

Day Two: Biometrics

Yeah...that's a fancy name for getting fingerprinted.  My appointment for the biometrics part of my citizenship process was today.  I thought I'd take a pic of the building from the outside, as we are not allowed recording devices inside.

Day One: Stuck

I thought I was gonna be late for work today.  I came across a train stop.  Literally.  The lights were on, the gate was down...and the train was...stopped.  It wasn't moving or anything.  I even had time to take this picture and upload it on facebook.

The Start of Week 6

Morning weight: 146.8 lbs

THANK YOU!

Whew!  After all that worry because of the foods that I ate on the road, I'm happy to say that I actually lost some weight from last week.

I'm feeling pretty optimistic.  I think I will break into the 130s by the time the wedding arrives.  My only concern now is the fact that my dress fitting is this Thursday.  And really, I shouldn't lose any more weight...

Decisions, decisions...

Road Trip

Why does the will become weak in long car rides?  I'm not even the one driving.  I just read and slept the whole way through.  And yet, I found myself saying yes to potato salad, rolls, fruits, fries, and riblets.

*sighs*

The result?  Some gas and constipation.

I'm not looking forward to weighing myself on Monday.  Hopefully, the damage wasn't too bad.

Getting Old Sucks Two

This lil guy just sharted on his doggie bed. Luckily we have extras.

Pumba's been lickin'

Most people know that Pumba has this thing about licking...and licking and licking and licking.  He can go four hours licking Bella's ears, my arms even Connor's ...ahem.  Anyway, this week, it seems to be a little bit worse.  Here are some of the marks he's made while licking around his feet.

 And here is a video of him doing exactly that:

*sighs* At least it's his way of interacting with the other two dogs.  Here's him with Connor...

And Bella...

Since he's not chowing down on his brother or sister, I'm pretty happy.

A milestone

Posted retroactively

22 Aug 2011.

Morning weight: 148.4 lbs

Woo hoo !  Broke through the 150's and am now in the 140's.  Next goal...to be in the 130's.  Hoping to get there by the wedding date :)

The challenge: my schedule at work.  Working in the plant entails that there are blocks of hours that I can't eat since I'm in my space suit in the middle of a process.  And sometimes, even when I get out I forget to eat!!  Now you might ask, how can anyone forget, right?  But honestly, in this Medifast program...I'm past four weeks and I have to be honest...I don't really feel hungry any more.  Sure, I have cravings from time to time...but I don't feel hunger...ergo, I forget to eat.

I hope this doesn't detrimentally effect my weight loss.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Elk Antler Treats

Amazing.  I finally found a treat that takes ALL three of my dogs awhile to go through. Last month, I was at Unleashed's anniversary party when we stumbled upon some elk antler treats.  I'm attaching a picture of what they look like from a website that I might start ordering them from:

Based on the size description, I think what we bought two medium ones--they were quite pricey at the Unleashed store, hence my search online for them.  Anyway...as I said, it's been about a month now and the only thing left of these treats are these two stubs, barely a couple of inches long:

And it's been a month! I can't believe I even have some of it left after a month.  All three dogs have had a go at them at one point and they all like it.  I will be buying more of these soon, as soon as I determine where I can get them the cheapest :)

The Natives are Restless

Posted retroactively.

04 August 2011

Because of the heat and the forecasted cooler weather tomorrow and on Friday, I've decided not to take the dogs to daycare until tomorrow.  And, since I haven't been taking them for long walks or even the dog park, they've been especially restless.

In particular, Connor, the seven month old puppy.  He's been extra specially obnoxious to everyone; he's whinier to me and James and he's more "jumpy" to Bella.  Our morning begins with his usual soft whine, indicating that he heard our alarm clock go off and that he knows we're awake and that we better get up and let him out.  Once we let him out into the backyard with all the other dogs, he begins his version of morning play and rough housing.  He likes to jump all over Bella and initiate a chase if he can.

Unfortunately for him, Bella is not a morning dog and she grumbles all throughout his antics.  I need to post a video of it one of these days.  Bella reminds me a lot of myself in the morning.

Work Gets in the Way

 Posted retroactively

04 August 2011

The Medifast program prefers that we eat every two to three hours so that our body doesn't go on some sort of fat-saving mode, thinking that it has to save fat to prepare for a long winter.  At least, that's my layman's interpretation of it.  Sadly, I think work gets in the way a lot of times when it comes to time-regimented eating habits. I wonder what this week will bring?

My Cheating Heart

16 Aug 2011

Morning weight: 151.2 lbs

It's not all the scale's fault.  I've been bad.

It started with the usual Friday slump.  My equipment was on the fritz so I had time...and when I have time I start thinking about food, I REALLY start thinking about food.  I hadn't planned on going out for lunch on Friday, but with free time on my hands, I couldn't resist when my co worker invited me to eat.  And where did we end up going?  A buffet.  Granted, it was a Mongolian grill buffet.  I've been going to Crazy Fire Mongolian grill since I started working in RTP, but I have to admit I haven't gone in awhile.  Still it's a mongolian grill.  If I had control, everything would be okay, right?  Except, control and I are really really very distant cousins.  And while I was able to turn down the rice and the noodles, I certainly had no control when it came to the meat.  I think I ate twice the required "lean" amount.  Plus, I'm not even sure how lean all those beef and seafood I picked.  Having said that, at least I believe that I ate the required amount of veggies.  Too bad I think the sauces I picked had a lot of salt :(

Then there was Saturday.  My future mother in law has invited me and my bridesmaids over for afternoon tea.  Which doesn't sound so dangerous, right?  I even brought some Medifast snacks with me to have with the tea.  But I knew it was just for show.  I mean...who refuses food that is prepared for them just because they are in a diet?  It's the height of rudeness!  And so I ate the food.  The thing is, not only did I eat the food, but I totally gorged myself on the cucumber sandwiches and the salmon sandwiches and the cupcakes and some of the chips.  I also put sugar in my first cup of tea.  And honey on the next.  And sugar again on the third cup.  But that's not all...I topped everything off with a glass of wine--yes, all that empty calories :(

*sighs*  I felt guilty about it.  It didn't help that James had kept asking me all week if we could cheat on Sunday.  And I was actually holding fast.  But after this cheat, I felt that I had to give James some leeway.  So I told him he could cheat on Sunday.  Which would have been fine for him...except, I, of course, had to go with him.  And where did we end up?  At Buffalo Brothers.  Where I ordered the fresh jalapeno poppers and the hot and sweet wings with ranch.  Oh heaven.  Oh yum...

Hence, I could totally see why on Monday, I gained some weight :(

More New Stuff

Yep, the eating schedule is definitely messed up when I'm working in lab.  I sometimes eat half the meal if I know that I have to eat a bit earlier than the two hours or end up not eating for the next four hours.  It's all I can do to keep track of the fact that I really did eat five meals. 

At least I've got more choices now.  Next month's supply arrived today so more cheesy puffs and crunch bars.  I ordered a couple of new stuff which I will review once I've tried them out.

Lean and green meal was for dinner.  I marinated some tilapia fillets with equal servings of low sodium soy sauce and some calamansi brought to me by my aunt and uncle when they went to FL.  Broiled it for a little over ten minutes and voila! I made some sauce to dip it in (again, calamansi with some patis).  YUM.  As usual, our salad consisted of lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers with a serving of dressing.

New Stuff!

Woo hoo!

Replacement meals arrived today.  What a coincidence that it arrived the day my next month's meals shipped.  Oh well.  At least I've got cheese puffs for now.  I may trade some of them for James's S'mores crunch bars.  Those were pretty good. 

Oh and new review for today.  I traded James for some of his BBQ bites meal.  They got the taste down right.  My only complaint again is the dryness of the meal.  It sucks the moisture out of your mouth.  Not as bad as the pretzels, so definitely do-able.

At least I didn't forget to eat today.  But then again with lab work, it became a bit difficult to eat at the designated 2 - 3 hours. My lean and green meal was eaten a little later than what I would have wanted.  My lunch dates were late due to getting lost or having meetings.  To top it off, the designated restaurant (Manchester's Grill off Alexander( has apparently closed and replaced by a Mexican restaurant--La Cocina.  I had the Paco salad.  Yes, Paco Salad, not Taco Salad.  Pretty much, it was grilled shrimp and chicken on top of romaine and sliced cucumber.  They had put some shredded cheese on top, but I took those off.

Stats
Medifast BBQ Bites - 3.5 stars

Gastronomic  ratings.

5 stars - I can see replacing potato chips with this

4 stars - It can be a steady part of my diet

3 stars - I can eat it.

2 stars - I'd rather skip a meal

1 star - I'd rather eat men's dirty socks.

Forgetting To Eat

It's a bad idea.  Work's been busy and I've been distracted.  Today, I've forgotten to eat my mid-morning snack before lunch, and then after lunch, I forgot to eat again until almost four hours after my meal.

The result?

A raging headache.

I had to wait until I get home before I could take some Advil.  In the past, I've always had a pharmacy in my purse.  I had a couple of allergy meds and pain meds such as Advil.  These days, my Veramyst made it so I really don't need my Allegra and my back hasn't been giving me much pain so no Advil.  Once I did get home, three Advils took care of the headache.  And, I'm on my way to eating three snacks in the next four hours in order to get all my nutrients of the day.

So, my advice? Don't forget to eat.  The eat every two to three hour guideline really should be followed.

Which I'm actually a bit worried about.  I'll be starting to work in the Plant again tomorrow, and will do so for the rest of the month.  Sometimes I'm in there five hours at a time.  Let's hope I can stick with this program's guidelines.

On a happier note, my lean and green meal was scrumptious.  Sashimi lunch at Sansui was yummy.  My friend, Denise, introduced me to the place.  She said it was one of her favorites when it comes to straight sushi, but she's had better when it comes to the specialty rolls.  But since yummy rolls are out of the question for now in this program, I was happy with sashimi.  I ate everything but the rice :)

Feeling Pretty Good

Morning weight: 151.0 lbs. 

Oh yeah. 

A couple of more pounds and I'm gonna be in the 140's.  I'm feeling pretty psyched and motivated.  I woke up today and didn't feel any of the usual sleepiness or grogginess that I used to have before the Medifast program.  I mean...I woke up and I was up.  Maybe I should have started my "Couch to 5k" training today.  And I think I would have it it wasn't so HOT.  I mean, come on, NC...another triple digit day?  I just feel damn lucky that my AC hasn't fritzed yet--knock on wood.

I'm going to be ordering next month's batch of Medifast meals today.  I know, I've only gone through a couple of week's worth.  But, I'm almost out of the crunch bars--which are super convenient by the way--and I'm down to my last cheesy puff.  What's left are hot drinks and hot soups.  Not only are they inconvenient, but it's already hot outside, so a hot snack isn't always what I'm jonesing for.  In addition, the five boxes I've traded for are not here yet.  And from what I understand, it takes about a couple of weeks to process.  So no new cheesy puffs or brownies are coming in time.

Lean and Green meal today is my mom's salmon recipe--without the bar of butter used to as oil to cook it.  Instead, I will be broiling it.

The only bad thing that happened today was that James told me he cheated.  The call of Randy's Pizza was too hard to resist and he gave in.  I may be lording this over him for several days.  Of course, after he did it, he gave me leave to cheat too and get myself a bag of chips. 

HA!

I'm gonna check out how long I can hold out.  This weight loss is giving me momentum and actually encouraging me not to cheat.  I admit, there were a couple or so days last week where I was really tempted because I didn't think I was losing weight, but now...Heheheh...

Dog Profiles: Choosing Connor

James wants a FLUFFY dog.  He has always been fascinated by huskies, malamutes, and Australian shepherds.  It has to be a medium to big sized dog, of course, as he didn't want some fru fru dog that could be mistaken for a hairy rat.  Nope.  He wanted a dog that looks like a wolf...or a fox--he'd go down in weight as far as a shiba inu.  But yeah, he wants a fluffy dog...and the two dogs I have so far have been...seriously lacking in the fluffiness department.

So he looked and he looked, trolling the internet for wolfy looking dogs like huskies and malamutes.  Because I had mentioned that we barely have room for another big dog, he also looked at shiba inus.  While looking at shiba inus, however, he stumbled upon a new breed with a somewhat controversial origins.  Controversial in terms of the fact that the breeders for it seem to be in conflict with each other, splitting the breed into three separate groups.  For now, however, we'll just call this breed the Tamaskan dog.  There's a lot of bad mouthing in the internet from one of the breeders, directed mostly at the US breeder, and I have to admit that turned me of a little. 

But James insisted that he wanted his wolf looking dog, and I insisted that it was okay as long as there's no wolf at all in that dog.  And damn if he didn't find one.

Meet Connor--the newest addition to our family.

Yes, he was that small when we got him.  He was about the size of a guinea pig, but way cuter.  Boy did he have some lungs in him, though.  We had put him in a small crate at the back after picking him up from the breeder, but we eventually took him to my lap because we were suckers and felt really bad about his whining.  I mean...he just got separated from his siblings!  We super understood.

Poor Pumba and Bella.  I'm not sure they knew what to make of Connor when we brought him home.  Bella liked to pretend he didn't exist for the first couple of weeks.

But Pumba took a liking to him.  Well, I'm not sure if it's a liking per se.  He tolerated Connor and licked him a lot.  Is that like?

I mean Bella eventually started playing with him.

I think she may have thought he was a chew toy.  After all, he was smaller than her head.  Connor would come out of their play being drenched in her slobber. 

Which was super cute.


Eventually, however, he did start to grow...

He started holding his own during their romps.  These days, I barely recognize him from the small little gerbil that he looked like when we first got him.  He's starting to get big...and yes, look more like a wolf.

He's a beautiful and playful dog.  Sometimes, he can be an @$$hole :D 

But we love him too anyway...