Other than Friday night's dinner, it's been a fairly low-key weekend. Probably because it's hotter than balls here and no one feels like doing a whole lot of anything.
Yesterday at High Noon was the 1st birthday party for one of the Neighborhood Badass kids. It was hot. Hotter than hot. And they had so many freaking people there that we were forced to stand in the garage with a box fan as our comfort. No offense to them - because they are just the most awesome people - but I couldn't wait to get the fuck outta there. It was miserable.
We came home and collapsed into comas in our respective corners, then ran out for a quick dinner and home to watch the race. Well, the boys watched the race while I read a magazine.
Remember how I threw my back out the other weekend? Well, the pains are still running down my leg. Not horribly, but in a nagging kind of way. And when I hopped on the scale on Friday, I am up five pounds. Five pounds might not seem like a lot, but I swear that since I lost my weight two years ago I hadn't had a whit of back problems. Now I'm not saying the five pounds have done it, but they sure ain't gonna help.
The other thing is that I haven't been working out at all. I probably haven't gotten on the treadmill in at least, oh, a month? Maybe two? I'm not even sure at this point. Oh, I did work out when we were at the Homestead a few weeks ago, but even then it had been a while. Mrs. Cat Door asked me on Friday if I had been doing my stretches and weights and I kind of sheepishly told her....um, no. And I got the eye-rolling, like "you dumbass, THIS is what keeps me in business!"
So I was reading Shape magazine last night (which is always a favorite read but I hadn't picked one up in months) and kind of got the fever again. So, it's back on the bandwagon. Starting with eating better, and trying to work out three times a week. I need to work out more, but three is doable at this point. The eating is the challenge.
I love to eat. Love. To. Eat. I used to avoid the Weight Watchers meetings like the plague - after the weigh-in I would hightail it out the door, because after sitting through two meetings I discovered that I couldn't relate to 99.9% of the people at that meeting. I don't get pissed off at people and go home and eat an entire cake. I don't get sad about things and drown my sorrows in three extra-large milkshakes. I eat because I love food. I love good food, I love fattening food, and I love everything that is bad for me.
The other kick in the ass is an upcoming review for Parent Bloggers which will actually make me get off my couch and do something. Otherwise, well, it will be one short review. Ahem.
About a month ago I toyed with the idea of trying to lose another 10 pounds. I'm not sure what it is about that number, but I never really felt like I was "done" or had reached my goal. Actually, I plateaued and that's where I stayed untouched for almost two years. The last few months have been a real struggle, and now, dammit - I have 15 pounds to lose if I do this. At a minimum I have to get these five pounds off with the hopes that the back problems will go away. I'm too damn young to be walking around like someone stuck a pole up my wazoo.
So prepare for the bitching. Because there's going to be plenty of it.
Anyhow, I did fix this really good dinner tonight - a recipe straight from Shape Magazine. I did doctor up the dressing a little, and I'll put my notes in there, but overall it was good. Even Joey liked it, and he hates salads (speaking of preparing for the bitching...).
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Churrasco Steak Salad
Ingredients
½ cup red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons coarse salt plus extra for seasoning the steak
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly ground pepper
1 pound skirt or flank steak
6 cups torn Romaine lettuce
4 cups baby arugula
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
½ red onion, thinly sliced
4 ounces Gorgonzola, coarsely crumbled
Directions
Prepare the vinaigrette by combining the vinegar, lemon juice, honey, 2 teaspoons of salt and oregano in a medium bowl. Whisk in the olive oil in a thin, steady stream. Season to taste with pepper and set aside.
Season the steak with some salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat for 1 minute. Add the steak and brown for 3 to 4 minutes on each side if you like your steaks done medium-rare or longer for well done. Transfer the steak to a cutting board to rest while you make the salad.
Combine the lettuce and the arugula in a large bowl. Add the tomatoes, the onions and half of the cheese. Toss the salad with enough of the red wine vinaigrette to lightly coat it. Cut the steaks crosswise into thin slices. Arrange the steak slices on top of the salad and drizzle more vinaigrette over the steak slices. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and serve.
Liz's notes: Well, I was out of oregano, but I had some Penzey's Italian Dressing Mix up in the cupboard so I threw about 2 tablespoons of that in there. I also thought the dressing was a little too sour for my taste, so I put more honey in to taste. Oh, and it says that it "serves four" - it probably does, I cut back on the greens because it was just the two of us and we had two pretty good-sized salads with some leftovers. Mmmmm.
2 comments:
Good luck with the butt reduction. I am in that same sort of place where I'd rather enjoy the food and deal with the consequences later. Later is now and I have put back the 10+ pounds I lost last year.
That salad sounds so good. I think we'll try it tomorrow. I'm always trying to lose weight and Mister is on the wagon after finding that all of his dress pants have "shrunk."
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