A Gift to Myself

Spring is around the corner! 6 days to go and boy am I yearning for it! We barely got snow this Winter and I know the temps didn't dip nearly as cold as last year, pero el mono chiflo more than once! I tell you that I have been making a variation of my bean stew at least once per week! Thankfully, it seems like the worst is over. We've had relatively warm days this past week, even hitting the 70s on Monday.  I know I have an extra Spring (pun totally intended) to my step!

I decided when I began my weight loss journey to give myself little goals and reward myself once I reached them. In the past, if I had a goal to lose weight, the prize would be food of some sort.  It's sounds absolutely crazy to me now, but even nine months ago I rewarded a hike with ice-cream. I've rewired this old noodle and I gift myself in other ways. I've rewarded myself with a pixie haircut once my face had thinned out. I've also bought some jewelry & good make-up and excellent bath & body products to show myself some love!  On the day of surgery, I told Mi Gringito that once I reached my goal of getting to under 200 pounds, I'd go for something substantial.  It was between a handbag, a pair of aviator sunglasses or a pair of shoes.

I can happily announced that I met my goal last month!

So what to choose? I own at least a dozen handbags, mostly all COACH. I have two perfectly good pairs of sunglasses, COACH and Ray Ban.  Shoes? Well, since I got a new job and am back in school, I had been in the market for a pair I could wear all day and hope to not have blisters or achy feet. It was decided and I began the shoe hunt.  My work uniform is a black top and blue jeans, so I wanted something that could stand out -- I was searching for something with some color, style and of course, comfort.  I got these:

Yes, I'm very loyal to my brands so I did not hesitate when these came on sale.  I've had them for two days and have not taken them off, except to shower and sleep.  They have a great fit and my feet don't hurt in them.  The true test will be at work this weekend, though.

You know what's another test? Making sure I get all my water and protein in by the end of the day. It seems like its a full-time job. I have to get a minimum of 48oz of water and 60g of protein. I have no problem with the liquid - since decaffeinated coffee counts as a liquid, I'm drinking the stuff almost exclusively.  Yes, I said decaf.  I haven't had anything caffeinated since October.  I'm a much calmer person and sleep like a baby, but I digress...

Protein is a bit harder to get.  In the beginning, I used to drink a protein shake daily which would give me 42g in a serving.  I soon got very disgusted with it and just shudder when I even think about it.  Pero que pasa? I forgot to inform La Suegra that protein shakes saben a rayo to me and she bought me an entire case the day after I completely swore them off. They have sat there now for over three months and I feel so bad.  I decided I needed to do something with them and came up with a recipe.  I figured that if the recipe came out decent, I'd be able to use up the shakes and get some protein in; if it came out bad, no one was drinking the shakes anyway so it wasn't a total loss.

D's Cake Batter Protein Pops
Ingredients:
1 17oz container of Myoplex French Vanilla Protein Shake (or any other pre-made protein shake)
1 box of Sugar-Free Butterscotch Instant Pudding

Directions

• Pour protein shake into a large mixing bowl

• Add instant pudding

• With an electric hand mixer, mix on Low for approximately 2 minutes or until well blended

• Pour mix into ice-cube trays and place in freezer until set (about 2 hours)

• Pop them out and keep in a freezer bag for storage

Makes approximately 24-28 depending how much you fill the trays. I tell you, as I mixed this it gave out an aroma like vanilla cake batter and I hoped it would taste like that once they were done...Yep! I don't know about you, but I used to love to lick the bowl clean when I was younger so this is an awesome treat for me. The nutritional stats will depend on how many pops you end up with.  This batch yielded 27 pops which came out to 15 cal and 1.5g of protein each. I also think you can also play with other flavors of pudding, but bear in mind that the vanilla flavor is very strong in this protein shake so you will always have it lingering.

I can't wait until the pretty flowers of Spring start popping everywhere! How about you? Did you feel Winter's sadness and welcome the joy of Spring?

Hasta la proxima!

Traiga La Camilla Que No Aguanto Mas...

I've never been outdoorsy...not in the least.  I don't like to be hot, I don't like to sweat and I'd be much happier if bugs did not exist.  In reality, though -- there will be times when the temperature will rise above fifty degrees in New England (for a minute in May, I was skeptical!).  With rising temperatures, you will inevitably sweat (or just swell up like a giant tomato, like me!) -- and those pesky bugs will buzz all around you.

So, why on God's green Earth would I even contemplate a walk, let alone a HIKE, in this wilderness? Exercise. Plain and simple.

Not pesky, but I don't consider a butterfly a bug!

My friends, I've been blessed like many Cubans to be "big boned" and I've realized that I'm not getting any younger nor am I ever going to get any thinner just sitting like a Buddha in from of my computer. It's not for lack of equipment...I have it all!  Treadmill, workout video's, Wii Fit, Zumba for the Wii, Dance Dance Revolution.  Just because I have the tools doesn't mean I will utilize them. As my thirtieth birthday looms in a little over a month, I know that I have to step up my game if I want to ever give Mi Gringito the little guajiro's he wants!

You think I will look like her if I do this daily?

So how does one vaga get off her butt and exercise?  I find some sort of motivation and trick myself into doing something.  Now I will be honest -- the motivation isn't always the best, but I look on the bright side that it got me moving.

I decided sometime in late winter/early spring (was there even a difference this year???) that what I wanted to do for exercise this spring and summer was to hike. I am in no way conditioned to scale Mt. Washington, or anything, but I figured that if I started small and slow I could eventually take on more advanced trails and maybe someday I could take on a mountain.

The first thing I did was buy a good pair of hiking boots and hiking socks. I then did some research on local trails as well as hiking tips and tricks.  I don't want to end up being supper for a rabid squirrel or chipmunk out there! Mi Gringito and I planned to drive all around New Hampshire starting with the easy trails and maybe working up to moderate one's by summer's end.

Fashion & function! 

All this planning got me hungry, sad to say, and I mentioned to Mi Gringito that what I really wanted more than a good walk was a huge scoop of ice-cream. I then asked him if he thought it was too ambitious of me to want to walk to the Beech Hill Farm & Ice Cream Barn. He said not at all; that it was about three miles round trip if we cut across our yard onto a hiking trail. So...yesterday afternoon, we put on our hiking boots, sprayed bug spray and sunscreen, filled a backpack with some water, an umbrella and my camera and decided to hike all the way to the barn and back.

The way there was pretty easy and uneventful except when I asked Mi Gringito if he new what poison ivy looked like and he said no. We must have been a sight trying to avoid EVERY leaf in our path. We survived so I guess we didn't run into any. That, or we've got some really tough skin.

EVERY set of leaves looked like these!

It took us about 45 minutes to get there and I don't think that chocolate ice-cream ever tasted so good to me. We sat in the air-conditioned room for a good half-hour and I wondered if Mi Gringito was dreading the hike back as much as I was! But alas, what other choice did we have? Los Suegros were in Massachusetts for the day so we really didn't have a Plan B on getting home.

Pay no attention to the hot pink blob in the middle of your screen!

Has anyone ever noticed that walking downhill is much, much easier than uphill? Oh that trek back was killer! It could have been because of the pint of chocolate brownie ice-cream that now sat like a lead weight in my stomach combined with the hill -- all I know was that we hadn't reached the trees yet and I was severely out of breath.  We made it home in one piece and actually took less time on the walk back (I think its because I was leading the retreat).  After a long and cold shower, I was aching but it felt good.  So what if all the calories I burned washed out with the ice-cream? The fact is that I voluntarily walked almost 3 miles! That's big!

4 minutes by car; 45 minutes by foot...

I hope to be able to chronicle other hikes that we decide to take this summer -- I didn't pull out the camera even once on this hike and now I regret it because it was very pretty and the butterflies were everywhere!

Stay cool, my friends! Hasta la proxima!