I Fought the Sun and the Sun Won!

Today I had a little unexpected visit to the dermatologist. Gotta love those right?!  The kind where they squeeze you in, so you end up waiting in the waiting room for close to an hour, and then in the exam room, and then whatever doctor is first available will “pop in” real quick.

I am grateful they could squeeze me in though ­– I should not complain.

Yesterday I noticed there was a mole on my left arm that had scabbed a bit. I thought that was odd, that it would be bleeding.  I am kind of pro at discovering “changes” in my lil moles.  God knows I have a lot of them.  I have had many “pre-cancer” they call them, moles.  I figured I better call the doctor and have them check it out.  Well, they couldn’t get me in for my full body scan until end of August (gotta love that too about doctors offices).  However, they wanted to get me in ASAP just to check out the lil “issue” on my arm.

Thankfully, once the doctor saw me it was a quick biopsy and I was FINALLY out of there and back to work.

Now I’m sporting this lovely arm bandage for the day and I continue to get asked what happened.

I call it my “battle wound” from my fight with the sun.

Seriously though, I’ve had MANY of these little battle wounds.  Small as they may be…they are a pain in the boo-tang. I think I will just plan on having little pieces of me chopped off every six months at least for the rest of my life! L

This is what comes with being fair with green eyes and strawberry blonde hair!  Thanks Grandma! 😉

This leads me to ask…what is a good sunless tanner?  Are they even safe?  I definitely know I do NOT like their smell.  (I’ve yet to find one that doesn’t smell putrid within an hour of putting them on).

Something makes me wonder about smearing or spraying chemicals all over your body.  Although, I guess you do that with sunscreen, lotions, etc.

I wonder if there are “all-natural” sunless tanners out there.

You know, I really don’t think about my whiteness (is that a word?), until I get a comment.  Ha.  Like when a trainer at the gym said (when I showed up the first day in shorts),”Dang girl, put some sun on those legs!”  LOL.

I then told him the story of how I will have to continue to “blind him with my legs” because of my history with pre-cancerous moles.  To which he quickly said, “Oh honey yes, you do not worry about that getting sun then.”

And honestly, I won’t.  I will be smearing on my sunscreen as I do now! Well…for the most part.  It is worth it!

The sad part is the damage is probably done.  I used to work at a tanning salon in high school and took advantage of the perk that I could tan for free every day. I also used to lay out with all those fancy oils to amplify the sun.  Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

Let me just say…Wear your sunscreen folks!!! (This shout goes out especially to my younger sister!!!) 😉

Talent

I have this talent.  I can eat the same thing, if I like it, over and over and over.  Hmm wait…is that a “talent” or really an “addiction”? 😉

My dinner tonight was my FAVORITE:  Chicken Fatoosh Salad from Plaka.

Maybe I should not admit this, but I had this for dinner yesterday, today and I will be having it tomorrow also as I’ll be picking up Plaka to-go to bring to my friends’ house for dinner.  hehe.

Perhaps I need MFAA (Mediterranean Food Addicts Anonymous), ya think? 😉

Questions of the Day:

Do you use sunless tanner and if so, do you like it?

Are you a “sunscreen-er” or a “baby oil-er”?

Do you have a favorite food you can eat over and over and over?

Of Possible Interest

The Best Sunscreens to Use and Lose

Sunscreen Reviews

How often should you see your dermatologist?

Are the ingredients in self-tanners safe?

Ouch…My Legs!

My legs are still so sore from Monday’s boot camp class.  I hadn’t actually done the boot camp class in a couple of weeks.  I’m telling you, once you miss for a bit, it is a KILLER going back!  Ugh…just gotta keep telling myself it’s the “good pain” right?! 😉

This morning my friend came by and we went to the gym. We did arms/shoulders on the machines first and then 30 mins. of cardio.  It was a good workout, but I’m tired!

Lunch

Lunch today was chicken sausage with a bell pepper and humus!

Very yummy!

Now I’m at Caribou eating my dark chocolate square and drinking my decaf coffee! 🙂

Gotta get goin’ and get to some research before I head back to work.  I’ve got some decisions to make and praying for God’s wisdom and discernment.

Be blessed today friends!!

Where’s My Phone?

I woke up this morning at 4:45.  This was a “little” early for me seeing as I went to bed after 10 p.m. last night.  I don’t do so well when I go to bed past 9:30 p.m.  Ideally, when getting up so early to workout, it’d be best to be in bed by 9 p.m. but ya know…that’s probably never gonna happen!  Especially in the summer, with the long days and sunlight shinning in your windows! J

We went to the fitness center and first did Ab Ripper X.  That was good to get us started.  Killer, but doable!  After that, we both hopped onto a machine, her on the bike, me on the elliptical. We did about 33 minutes of hard-core cardio. It was great.

I went home and went to text and realized I didn’t have my phone.  Eek!  I hate that feeling don’t you?  I looked all over my place, nothing.  I dug through the bag that I brought to the gym, nothing.  So I figured I had to have left it in the elliptical cup holder where I stow it while working out. I got in my car and drove up to the fitness center, and ran to check that cup holder.  Nope – not there.  Oh boy, now I was really panicking.  It’s one thing to lose your cell phone, it’s another thing to lose your iPhone which costs about $600 to replace!

I drove back home, looked all over again, searched everywhere and still could not find it.  And you know what stinks about loosing your phone, how do you even call or text someone to call you to see if you can hear it ringing?  You can’t!

I thought I must have lost it on the walk back from the fitness center (we had walked).  I started to head out and got half way there when I realized I didn’t have my key to let me in!  GRRRRR!!!  I went back home, grabbed the key and set off on foot again.  By this time I was really freaking out. I hadn’t showered, hadn’t eaten, was running late for work and couldn’t call to tell anyone, and didn’t want to go to work without finding this $600 piece of metal I had lost!!

This time I ran to the fitness center. I was scanning the ground, and could see nothing.  I kept praying, “Lord PLEASE help me find this thing!”

I got into the fitness center and just started scanning all over the room.  BAM! There it was, sitting on a weight machine I had never used right next to my empty water bottle!  DUH!  I remembered, I took it out of the cup holder and set it there when I went to clean off the elliptical.

Whew, I was so relieved.  I tell ya though…WHAT A MORNING!  My neighbors have to think I’m crazy for seeing me run back and forth, back and forth like a lunatic this morning!

I think I am considering this morning “two workouts for the price of one!” J

Lunch

For lunch today I tried something new.  Now it may sound a little crazy, but trust me…it’s good.

I took about approximately a cup of Trader Joe’s Healthy 8 chopped veggie mix with a couple of Tbsps of Trader Joes organic humus and a can of Starkist low sodium albacore tuna!

Mmmm!  High protein, low carb, and very satisfying!

Evening of Pie…or Not!

Now, I’m sitting at Grand Traverse Pie Company waiting for some ladies from church.  It’s our Women’s Ministry’s “event” tonight…meeting here for dinner, coffee, PIE. 😦  I will have to pass on the pie.  How is that possible when they look like this…

cherry pie

blueberry pie

 

coconut pie

I am thinking I’m in trouble!  Good thing I brought a protein bar (yeah right!!!)

Have a great Friday night all!!

 

 

Dismissed

Today was a great day!  Despite having an icky stomach and horrible headache for three days now, I am grateful today.

I had my court appointment for my “red light” ticket.  I was really nervous about going to court.  Though I heard it was not big deal, I have never gone before, well besides when I was in school and I went to “report” on various cases.  I had never gone on behalf of myself.  I didn’t know what to expect.

(Source)

I have a friend whose father is a retired police officer.  She told him about my situation, and he said he would call the courthouse to put in a good word for me.  He called yesterday, and she told me that I would be speaking with a certain guy and that her dad said I should touch base with him.  When I got to the counter, I asked to speak with that person and they did not know who he was.  The guy had never heard of him.  I was thinking Uh Oh, I’m sunk.  But then I thought, oh well…I’ll just go in there and explain to the magistrate  how I misjudged the light (the truth), and that I would like to have the offense lowered as to not get points (I have a clean record, and was told by many, this would help).

So I left the counter and went and sat in the waiting area for the Magistrate to call me in.  Well, it felt like I was waiting forever.  I was talking with another guy there who seemed to be a pro at fighting speeding tickets, lol.  He was giving me a bit of the run-down.  He said I may get called in to see the Prosecutor first.  I was a lil freaked by that, but he said that was a “good thing” and that you could explain your case.  Often it was the prosecutor he said that would let you off, or lower your offense.

As I was sitting there, a coworker walked in.  Now that was funny, what are the chances that me and a coworker had the very same court times for our tickets. LOL.  That was humorous.

I got the call into the Prosecutor’s office, and he told me he received a call about me yesterday and that today was my lucky day.  He then asked me how lucky I wanted to be.  I, of course, told him VERY LUCKY!!!  🙂 He said, “Ok, I’m going to dismiss your ticket.”  I thought, really??  I was, and am, incredibly grateful!!  I don’t really consider it luck though, I consider it answered prayer.

This prosecutor showed me GRACE!  I deserved the ticket, I did.  But he let me off.  WHEW…thank the Lord.  Now I do not have points, and I did not owe a thing.  God is gracious, even when we are undeserving!!

(Source)

Workout

I made my way to BodyBlade tonight, even though I wasn’t feeling so hot.  It was ok, cuz BodyBlade is a lot lower key than boot camp.  It was a good workout, just what my arms needed actually. 🙂

After that, I stopped by Planet Fitness to check them out.  A friend and I are considering going there in the mornings before work.  This means, I would be doing more of my workouts in the mornings versus evenings.  This would free up some of my evenings for me, which would be good.  However, I’d still have to go to boot camp and BodyBlade sometimes, cuz I just love those classes!

Carrot Cake Protein Bars

I just made a batch of carrot cake protein bars.  Oh man, is it smelling good in here!!  I probably shouldn’t dig in because I already had two of my chocolate ones a couple of hours ago.  Bummer.  Somehow you think cuz they are healthy, and protein you can justify eating the whole pan. LOL.

Gosh, I’ll be good I guess.  I’ll just dream about them as my morning snack tomorrow.  The way it smells in here though, I think my mouth is going to water all night! 😉

Oh, and I will post the recipe soon.

Goodnight all!

Chocolate Protein Bars (CAKE)

Good morning!

Saturday mornings are great aren’t they?!  I decided to be a rebel and skip boot camp today.  I think I need to ease my way back into working out since that vacation.  I”m telling you, I can’t believe how four days of being off throws you.  My body feels like it weighs a million pounds. LOL.

I did get up and do the elliptical for 33 mins instead.  That even kicked my butt.  Oh well.

I came home and ate one delicious protein bar (which taste more like cake) with my recovery shake. 🙂

Jamie Eason Chocolate Protein Bars

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Oat Flour
• 4 Egg Whites
• 2 scoops Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
• ½ cup Stevia
• ½ tsp Baking Soda
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 8oz Berry flavored Baby Food
• 3 tbsp Baking Cocoa
• 4oz Water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix dry ingredients (oat flower, vanilla whey protein, baking soda, salt, baking cocoa) together in a large bowl.
3. Mix wet ingredients (egg whites, Splenda, Truvia, or Ideal, Berry flavored Baby Food,Water) together in a medium sized bowl.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix together.
5. Spray cooking dish with a non stick butter spray and add batter to dish.
6. Bake 20-30 minutes in oven.

Calories: 96 Fat: 1.4 grams Carbs: 12 grams Protein: 10 grams

Clean Carpets

After the elliptical and eating my my delicious protein breakfast I steam cleaned my carpets.  Ahh… so nice to have fresh, clean carpet. 🙂  Love that “fresh feeling.”

Bagel Friday

Yesterday I was so excited…it was “Bagel Friday” at work again.  Well this week, the guy whose turn it was to bring bagels (which I can never eat) actually brought a bunch of healthy almonds.  We had strawberries, blueberries, almonds, orange juice.  The “table of doom” never looked so great and I could actually partake!!

So yummy!  And felt soo good after a week of eating crap!!

Well, I’m off to run some errands.   Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Vacation

My vacation starts today at 2 p.m.  Can’t wait!

What are you all doing for the Memorial Day holiday weekend?

How do you keep on track with eating right and exercise during vacations?  That is the question.

Here are some things I plan to do:

• Get up early in the morning and walk/jog
• Eat heathy 80% of the time (you have to allow yourself to cheat a little bit)
• Text my friends/accountability partners who are on the same fitness journey as me
• Throw in some crunches, lunges, push-ups, etc

Good thing the iPhone has this really cool ap called workout trainer.  It has a ton of different workouts, including timers, video instructions, personal trainer ‘voice’, etc.  It’s a great thing to use when you are away from your gym.

There is a free version, and also a paid version. I bought the paid version for access to more of the workouts.  It’s worth it! 🙂

Plant Protein

I was trying to switch up my protein intake from pretty much all animal protein to some plant-based protein.  I was at the Vitamin Shoppe the other day, intending to buy Sun Warrior, which I heard is pretty good.  Instead, I bought some Pure Green Protein because it was on sale.  Oh my…what a MISTAKE!  This stuff was totally nasty!!!  I bought the chocolate flavor and mixed some in with my Shakeology hoping that would help cut the “plant” taste.  Wrong.  It was so gross.  It totally ruined my Shakeology, and I ended up dumping half the shake down the sink! 😦

Do you guys know of any good tasting plant protein powders?

I’m thinking I will go back and buy Sun Warrior.  Have you tried it?  If so, what do you think? 

At least it has pretty good reviews.

People Watching

Happy Saturday!

I feel like I have so much to cram into this weekend!  There is never enough time to get anything done.

Last night I had a physical therapy appointment right from work.  Oh, there is great progress on the hip and back.  Yay!!  After that I headed to downtown Ann Arbor to meet with a client and our web guy from the pro bono work I’ve been doing.  We didn’t get quite as much accomplished as I would like, but it’s a big job! 🙂 So much to do on that…

This morning, got up early, got some stuff done around home, then came up to the coffee shop quick before boot camp.

It looks like it’s going to be a gorgeous weekend here in the D.  This morning is perfect. There are a lot of people walking around town this morning, and I like that.  It’s so great to see everyone out and about, enjoying the morning.  I am an avid people watcher. 😉 I don’t know why, but watching people is completely fascinating to me.

To my disgust, I watched the lady behind the counter take my money, work the register, etc. with her “food gloves” on, and then proceed to make someone’s sandwich and “flop around the eggs” with those same gloves!  Let’s just say I’m glad that sandwich wasn’t mine. 😉

You know the best places to people watch in my opinion are the mall and the airport.  You see all these people hustling and bustling around.  I always wonder, what’s their story? Where are they going?  What is their life like? What makes them happy? What makes them tick?  How was their childhood? (LOL).  Seriously.

I’ve always enjoyed hearing people’s’ stories, and learning where they’ve come from and what they are about.  My minor is psychology and though I didn’t do anything with it “professionally” perse,  it still totally interests me.

So beware!  You never know…I may be watching you.

(Source)

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia

Happy Friday!

Yesterday’s boot camp and BodyBlade classes were brutal.  I made it through boot camp ok, but gosh my arms were so tired for BodyBlade.  That’s a good thing though, since my arms are what I really want to focus on toning!

 Morning Cardio & Breakfast

 I got up this morning and just did some light cardio. My legs were pretty sore from the three boot camps (3 days in a row mind you) this week, so I wanted to get some blood flowing to them for recovery, without pushing too much resistance.

I ended up doing the elliptical on level two for 33 minutes, and that seemed good enough!

I went back home and couldn’t wait to dig into my overnight oats. This morning I added chia seeds for some extra “Omega-3 punch”.

 Have you jumped on the “chia bandwagon”?

Chia Seeds are full of amazing health benefits!  Check out these stats…

(Source)

Chia seeds are said to:

• Boost energy
• Balance your blood sugar
• Help clean your intestinal tract (high in fiber)
• Aid in weight loss (the fiber keeps you fuller longer)
• Reduce the risk of heart disease
• Lower blood pressure

… and much more!

I am going to be doing more baking with these amazing seeds!  Can’t wait to try them in my muffins! 😉

Questions of the Morning:

• Do you cook/bake with chia seeds?
• What is your favorite chia seed recipe?

So You Want To Date My Daughter?

Lunch & Afternoon

I’m suddenly getting very sleepy.  Perhaps it’s the clouds that are moving in.  I got enough rest last night, I went to bed early and even slept through my cardio.  I figured my body needed a rest… with boot camp and BodyBlade Tuesday night and boot camp last night, and boot camp and BodyBlade tonight… LOL.   Yeah!  Rest was needed.

I had a tasty lunch today, one of my favorites actually.  Often I bring a lunch to work, but today I went to Baja Fresh for their side of grilled chicken.  I always sneak in my own low-carb tortilla’s (don’t tell) so between that and their fresh salsa, it makes a very healthy and filling lunch!

Of course, I had to go to the Barnes and Noble after, since it right near Baja Fresh.  My daily “after lunch decaf and dark chocolate” made it a wonderful hour out!

So You Want To Date My Daughter?

No, I do not have a daughter!  In fact, I don’t have any kids at the moment… but God willing, some day I will.

A friend posted this on his Facebook page today, and I thought it was GREAT!  If ever I am blessed with a daughter, I would hope her father would be as bold and thoughtful as this man is in regards to protecting her.

1. You must love Jesus. I don’t care if you’re a “good Christian boy.” I was one of those too. So I know the tricks. I’m going to ask you specific, heart-testing questions about your spiritual affections, your daily devotional life, your idols, your disciplines, and the like. I’ll cut you a little bit of slack because you’re young and hormonal and your pre-frontal lobe isn’t fully developed yet, but I’ll be watching you like a hawk. I know you. I was you. You will think you can fool me, and you likely have fooled many other dads who didn’t pay much attention to their daughters’ suitors, but I will be on you like Bourne on that guy whose neck he broke. Which guy was that? Every guy. So love Jesus more than my daughter or go home.

2. You will install X3Watch or Covenant Eyes on your computer and mobile devices and have your regular reports sent to me.

3. I will talk to your dad and tell him I will hold him responsible if you don’t treat my daughter like a lady. If he thinks I’m a crazy person, you fail the test and won’t get to date her. If he understands what I’m saying, that bodes well for you.

4. You will pay for everything. Oh, sure, every now and then my daughter can buy you a Coke or something and a gift on your birthday and at Christmas. But you pay for meals, movies, outings, whatever else. Don’t have a job? I’m sorry, why I am talking to you again?

5. You will accept my Facebook friend request.

6. If it looks like you need a belt to hold your pants up, I will assume you don’t have a job. See #4.

7. Young people dating are putting their best face forward, so if you appear impatient, ill-tempered, or ill-mannered, I know you will gradually become more so over time. I will have no jerks dating my daughters.

8. If I am not your pastor, I will talk to the man who is. If your pastor is a woman, why I am talking to you, again?

9. You don’t love my daughter. You have no idea what love is. You like her and you might love her someday. That’s an okay start with me, so put the seatbelt on the mushy gushy stuff. Don’t profess your undying love, quote stupid love song lyrics to her, tell her you’d die for her, or feed her any other boneheaded lines that are way out of your depth as a horny little idiot. A lady’s heart is a fragile thing. If you play with hers, I will show you yours.

10. If you ever find yourself alone with my daughter, don’t panic. Just correct the situation immediately. If I ever catch you trying to get alone with my daughter, that would be the time to panic.

11. It may sound like I’m joking in threatening you harm, and while I might not physically hurt you if you offend my daughter or violate her honor, when I am addressing the issue with you, you will not be laughing.

12. You may think all this sounds very legalistic. That’s fine. You can be one of the many antinomians not dating my daughter.

Good Stuff huh?! 😉  If you want to read more about the author/father check him out here.

Now… what about something like this for the 30-somethings men out there who STILL do not ‘get it’!

Off to boot camp… !  Have a great night!

Cake, Food, Gum

Good Monday afternoon!

How was your weekend?

Mine was good, it was very busy as usual. Last night, we celebrated my dear sister’s birthday! I can’t believe my baby sister is 26! Her lil’  shin-dig was full of family, fun and FOOD. My favorite was the raspberry cake!

It was so pretty, I felt bad even cutting it let alone eating it!

Lunch

After last night’s evening of cake and ice cream, I wanted needed a healthy lunch.

I went to a quaint lil Mongolian BBQ style place and made up a healthy bowl of chicken, turkey, veggies, and brown rice. 🙂

It hit the spot and I have oodles of leftovers to last me through tomorrow’s (or maybe even Wednesday’s) lunch!

Wildberry Remix

I think I’m a sucker for Orbit’s new gum!
This stuff  is awesome! I can’t decide if it’s the gum flavor or the groovy packaging that has won my affections.

Wrapped up…

Package….

Neat huh?!? 😉

Good idea Orbit! Yummy fresh flavors with fun packaging to match!

Question of the day?

Do you get excited about little things like… Oh I dunno, gum packaging?  Or maybe you are not as lame as me! 😉