Wednesday Weigh In - Still trending down!

Still trending down! Also still not yet in the 162s, but it's probably because of the cold--I'm hardly moving this week and sleeping a lot because its chilly and dark this winter, but since it's still going down, so I'm happy!

I've been fully GF again all month, except for one slice of pie that I just needed to have, and I'm feeling better. Even with all the heavy winter food!

Currently - Proper snow!

Real snow! And it's past noon and its still there! The light is crazy-bright, too, so I had no idea what these pictures looked like until I came inside!

Monday Mani (on Wednesday) - Yellow and purple

This is my own Blink on most nails, being too sheer to cover the blue stains still there from WEEKS ago, and the accent nails are a custom I'm working on.

What've you got on your nails today?

I Made This - Hair-flowers

This is so simple it's not really a tutorial, more of an update on what I've been doing to keep my hands busy while my computer is messed up and I have to keep messing with it trying to fix it. And it's in gif-form! Whoo! Look here:

Apparently the translation from my phone to the computer makes it less pretty. Also, my desk is a mess in the background of almost every shot. But hey: you work with what you have.

SO here's what I had:

1. Get some flowers - These were just two sprigs of the cheapest ones, in colors I liked; they were maybe two or three dollars a piece*. Make sure they're the ones stuck on the wire with little sockets so you can just pull the wire out from under them.
2. Get some bobby pins. You could probably use just about any kind of pin here, as long as the closed end is small enough; I usually have about 9 million bobby pins laying around at all times.
3. Jam the bobby pins into the place where the wire was, making a new stem that is a pin. 
4. Jam the pins into your hair.
5. Repeat.

These flowers also had leaves stuck on the wires in the same way, so I made a few leaf-pins, too, for accents, and then walked around half the day yesterday with half a garden stuck in my hair all around my bun. Good times.

I'll probably be making more of these because they're cheap and I like putting stuff in my hair, and maybe some more complicated ones with alligator-clips out of the fancier flowers and maybe some feathers later. I'll also be making a holder to keep them from rolling around all over my desk later. How much later? Who knows! When I have time and money some weekend, or when I get my crafting stuff out of storage and manage to find the parts I need.

If you do this, show us what flowers you used and how they turned out!

See you next post!

Notes:

* There were some gorgeous, full, amazingly not-naturally-colored ones in the $5-8 range that I'll go back for later.

Wednesday Weigh In - 163.4

Not the 162 I was aiming for, but lower than before so I call it a win!

Weekly Weigh-In - 163.6 again!

Almost back to where I was before the holidays! And (hopefully) back on track for losing at least a pound a week, which is what I was doing before the holidays and what I want to be back to now!

Thankful Thursday

Right now, I'm thankful for...

- two bottles of sparkly nail polish from my favorite brand! 

- all the wonderful people I've met by being openly geeky.

- the slightly warmer temperatures today before things get cold again this weekend!

What're you tankful for?

Wednesday Weigh-In - 166.9 again!

Ugh! How terrible!

I blame it on it being that time of the month and soon as it's done I'm going to do a day or two of water-retention fixing, and hope for the best.

Gluten Free Experiments - Granola!

Look at that! 

I mean, it burned some and I had to scoop out the really burned stuff, but even over browned, this was delicious and totally easy!

I knew I wanted granola and I knew they charged way too much at the grocery store and I knew I had at least most of the ingredients to make it, but I've never made it myself, so I decided to try. I found a recipe* that used proportions and had very few ingredients, and used that as my base. I actually had about half of what the recipe called for but it made more than enough for me, since I'm really the only one in the house that likes granola.

Here's what I did:

- 2 cups oats (the real kind)

- 1 cup mixed nuts and 1/2 c mixed fruit (I just picked them out of a big thing of trail mix I always have around)

- 1/4 c coconut oil

- 1/4 c honey (the recipe says any syrup and any oil; these were the ones I had)

I also threw in a little salt, maybe a teaspoon and a half of cinnamon, some ground flax.

Mix the dry stuff--oats, nuts, cinnamon, salt, flax. Not fruit; those go in after it cooks.

Mix syrup and oil.

Mix wet and dry together.

Spread out on the cookie sheet and cool at 350. It said to do it for 30 min, stirring every ten mins, but that was for twice the ingredients, which I didn't even think of at the time and that's probably why it burned. Next time, I'll cook it in five minute intervals and keep a better eye on it.

When it comes out, toss in the fruit, cool it, and store somewhere airtight--I just threw it back into the oatmeal box because it had a kid and I didn't have anything else!

I decided to eat it with some Noosa Mango Yogurt that's been sitting in the fridge and had gotten a little sour-creamy, so I also threw in a bit of applesauce. It was delicious.

Notes:

- Recipe: http://ambertheblack.com/no-recipe-easy-homemade-granola/

- The trail mix I had was the kind I make myself--this time it had a lot of corn nuts that got really delicious with the extra toasting.

- I might make it sweeter next time--add brown sugar, or more honey-oil mix.

- I'm definitely adding more fruit. I like a fruity granola.

- I think if I have pre-toasted nuts again next time, I'll throw them in at the last five or ten mins instead of at the start.

But this came out very well and I'm keeping it!

Living A Better Life - This Wednesday: Tips for living a virtuous life–from Ben Franklin in 1793. « The Happiness Project

This Wednesday: Tips for living a virtuous life–from Ben Franklin in 1793. « The Happiness Project:

I love this blog so much. And her book. I haven't read the second book yet, but you know I'm gonna. She posts wonderful things like Ben Franklin's Tips For Living A Virtuous Life:

1. Temperance. Eat not to Dulness. Drink not to Elevation.
2. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling Conversation.
3. Order. Let all your Things have their Places. Let each Part of your Business have its Time.
4. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality. Make no Expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e., Waste nothing.
6. Industry. Lose no time. Be always employ’d in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary Actions.
7. Sincerity. Use no hurtful Deceit. Think innocently and justly; and if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice. Wrong none, by doing Injuries or omitting the Benefits that are your Duty.
9. Moderation. Avoid Extreams. Forbear resenting Injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness. Tolerate no Uncleanness in Body, Cloaths, or Habitation.
11. Tranquility. Be not disturbed at Trifles, or at Accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity. Rarely use Venery but for Health or Offspring; Never to Dullness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another’s Peace or Reputation.
13. Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

What tips would you add to this list?

'via Blog this'

Happy New Year!

Have a terrible selfie to start off the year!

2013 In Review!

That about sums it up, Benny.

First! The good! In no real order since I didn't manage to keep up the detailing of facts this past year and so I have to rely on my kind-of-crappy memory:

• Incidental Twin took off and I made some lovely friends through it! I haven't yet broken even, but I'm making enough to keep going and I'm working on some Big Plans for the year to come!
• I graduated Grad School! I was doubting I ever would, but I totally did!
• I finished my novel! And then in November, I wrote another one! Which means I have one compete and one being revised, and I'm working on another, and that's more to sell to an agent as I start off the New Year!
• I got to see a movie in the theatre almost every month because of the kindness of my brother.
• I went to the beach for the first time since leaving Florida.
• I got to visit my best friend over a year after moving away from him!
• I read 46 books.
• I saw Avengers about 37 times because the kids liked to watch it and I liked it better than Spiderman 3 or any of the Transformers, which were the other "let's watch a movie" options they gave me.
• I got to be in on the ground floor as the Sleepy Hollow fandom formed around me* while I watched!
• I finally figured out at least a part of why I've been so unhealthy and started on the path of fixing it.
• I got to Kickstart part of The Veronica Mars movie, the Story War game, the Superfight game, the This Is How You Die game, the Dungeon Roll game, and teeny tiny bits of a number of other games! Which means a return of gaming to my life, at some point.
• I became obsessed with the Halloween update of the Simpsons Tapped Out game. The Christmas one was pretty great, too.
• Also obsessed with Candy Crush Saga, Jelly Splash, and The Silent Age. This last one? I can't wait until I can play the next chapter.
• I've done much better with the floating anxiety and depression I've been arguing with inside my brain chemistry for the last ten years or so.
• I got to watch the wonderful Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special live because the Beeb simulcasted it. It was so great knowing that the whole world's Doctor Who fandom was watching and screaming and crying at the same time as I was.

And now the bad! Because every life is a pile of good things and a pile of bad things:

• My dad had a series of mini-stokes at the beginning of the year, and it was rough for a while.
• Mom was sick and hurt way too often.
• I fell in the tub and cracked a few of my ribs on Valentines Day; if that doesn't sum up my current relationship with romance, I don't know what does.
• I was really unwell at the beginning of the year.
• I have not yet found an agent, and that's sad-making and anxiety-inducing.
• I didn't manage to finish my micro-fic-a-day challenge I set myself; I'm apparently not good with challenges that don't have defined ends.
• I still haven;t figured out how to make friends here, or where to go to find cool people, and sometimes I feel really isolated.
• Raleigh is not all it's cracked up to be.
• I missed a number of concerts I really wanted to go to because of rampant poorness.

Really, this year doesn't have a lot to complain about. I mean, it was better than the upheaval that was 2012, and it was rough often, and depressing sometimes, but not as bad or as specific as a lot of the years right before it, so I don't have a lot to say on the bad list. And I'd much rather focus on the good list, you know? 

How did your last year go, lovely readers?

Notes:
* When I say 'around me' I mean, I was there, not that I had a central role in it. Just to be clear.

Wednesday Weigh In - Starting A New Year Edition

Okay, for the last month and a bit between Thanksgiving and New Years, I tried less and less hard to keep on the GF diet. I'd done a whole month on, then most of the month after that, and I had proven to myself that it is something useful and healthful to myself--and then the holidays happened and I was doing okay until Cooking Making Day. And Cookie Swap Day. And I decided that Family Traditions going back to years before I was born are more important than feeling at my absolute best through the holidays, so I made cookies. And I ate them. And they were as delicious as I remembered.

At first, they were excellent because of what they were--we traditionally make Tollhouse Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Scotchies, Peanutbutter Thumbprint and Sugar Cookies*. And we made all of those in one massive pile of cookie making that went from 4pm to 2am and it was like old times. 

And then, as we ate our ways through them and the gluten started making me feel baseline funky again, and I saw how they were affecting me, they made me really want to go back on the Diet and then figure out how to make the same cookies in a GF way. So over the next year, regardless of how well I manage to stay 100% on the Diet**, I'll be trying out various GF recipes that claim to be the same, and I'll document them here. It'll help me totally relearn baking, which has been an annoyance to me--I mean, I've been baking since I was 8 on my own, and since I was 5 or 6 helping my mom, and now all of a sudden I don't have that instinctual knowledge of how it works--GF baking is way different and a lot more...chemistry than regular baking. So I have to learn it all over again, and Cookie Day will be a good way to do that.

I was expecting, after Falling Off the Wagon for so long, to have regained all the weight I lost and to have gotten way sick again, but I only gained back some and only got a little sick. I mean, I have a harsh cold now, the first I've had since I went off, and I'm blaming it on the gluten because I'm feeling gross and uncharitable, but that could be coincidence. I can definitely tell that I'm not Right--the greasiness and flakiness has come back to my skin, made worse by winter weather, the problems getting to sleep and staying asleep are back, made worse by holiday stress, the foggy brain is back, the motivation and energy problems, whatever. But none are as bad as they were before, so I think I've retained some of the good I did, and I'm hoping that means it'll be easier to stay on.

So here's my goals:

• To beat a month and a half totally GF--and then to beat whatever that score is
• To only Fall Off when I have already told myself it's okay--when there's birthday cake, or at traditional family gatherings, or when I'm not in control of my food, and not just because it's a Tuesday and I'm lazy
• To use GF living as a jumping off point and to gradually healthy-up the rest of my life, over the course of probably more than this year, but to also make headway this year
• To lose the weight I gained and to keep losing until I'm somewhere closer to A Healthy Weight--or, even better, my Goal Weight, which is 30lbs less than where I am now

These are sort-of New Years Resolutions, but they're also the goals I've had since I decided to figure out what's wrong with me back last summer, so I think they'll be okay. I just might require reminding every once in a while, so I thought it's a good time to document them here, in a public forum, right?

What're your health goals this year? Or even just this month?

Notes:

*We use the same recipies, my mom, my sister and I, from an ancient cookbook handed down from the 50s when my mom got married and copied when we all moved out, and yet they're all a little different. Like, I use butter in my sugar cookies and my sister uses Crisco; when did that mutation happen?

**I'm focused, but weak-willed; I'll probably fall off more than once over just not wanting to impose on others, let alone when I'm just too poor to afford the special food I need or when there's no other option, or when I'm just craving something so bad that I just say "fuck it" and eat a pizza.