Oh, hey, what's up Internet?

Wow. So, it has been a year since I waxed poetic about Sam and Diane - and promptly forgot all about them. Time is a fickle thing! Very soon after vowing to watch Cheers nightly, the spouse and I got all wrapped up in watching Deep Space 9 every night. How very not-hip of us!

So, I'm back. Trying really, really hard to focus on my health, weight, and wellness. And also my groovy kids - the bulldozer and the ballerina. I am turning to this as a method of accountability, introspection, and blabbermouthing.  I'm giving the internet a great big kiss on the lips.

To update: I am down abut 32 pounds total. Now, keep in mind I was 25 pounds down when I last posted, about 11 months ago. I'd say I gained about 10 of that back, then lost it again. So, I'll take that 7 pounds of progress, thank you very much!  Loseit.com has been a great tool, as has been my stationary bike at home and my non-meathead gym.  This feels a LOT harder than it did when I lost 90+ pounds in 2005-2007.  But not everything was meant to feel easy, and maybe this journey is harder for a reason.  

A Few Things.

Hi, internet.
A few things...
1) I'm down 25 pounds. Woot.
2) I've been spending too much time on Reddit.
3) I'm here to talk to you about Cheers.

Sam. Diane. Norm. Carla. Coach. Cliff. Woody. Rebecca. Sometimes you wanna go where you know everybody's name.
J and I recently realized that the entire series of Cheers is available on Netflix for instant view. This weekend, we kind of chuckled, and decided to put on the Pilot episode, just to see how it stood the test of time. We snuggled back and were... totally blown away by how quickly we were drawn in, how well the characters were already developed, and by how much it made us laugh.

I have a lot of fond memories of Cheers - it is one of the shows I absolutely grew up watching in the background. It is also one I wasn't old enough to "get" a lot of the innuendo or appreciate the plot points the first time around. I'm kind of dorkishly excited to be rediscovering the show. J and I made an agreement, we'd watch an episode every night until we finished - in something like 274 days. A 24 minute nightly investment that gives us something different (ok, ok, it is still just watching TV, but still) to do together.

Alas, our 3 year old is now passed out in our bed with a nasty cold, and since that is the only TV we have hooked up to a PS3...It looks like I need to put Sam and Diane on hold for tonight.

Free at last!

Tax season is Over.
Momma is back in town!

For the record - I'm at x+3 right now. Stupid tax season, making me eat awful hours and all kinds of crap. You're a jerk. But now that April is over, the husband-man and I are really buckling down and focusing on eating healthy. I even calculated the calories of tonight's dinner (which, by the way, is crock pot chicken masala.)

Oh, yeah - new ingredient a week? Totally stopped. Though I did go a week or two past Malanga. Last one I remember is fresh ginger. :)

Week 5: Malanga

AKA My First Fail. :( I have, until now, been of the sincere belief that you can oven roast just about anything and it will be delicious. Apparently, this is not the case with malanga. Because if I try to eat the slices I just took out of the oven, I will surely break a tooth. Bummer.

Malanga is a starchy tuber, commonly grown in Central & South America, as well as Western Africa and Polynesia. It apparently is the poor cousin of Yucca. None of which I knew when I saw this weird, hairy looking potato thing at the grocery store and snagged it for this week's use. Turns out recipes were a little hard to find, and I decided I'd stick with tried-and-true. Except tried and true does not always work.

Thankfully dinner tonight (Shepherd's Pie & Roasted Asparagus) was not counting on the malanga as the star of the show, so I can unceremoniously dump the whole Fail in the trash. Oh, well - that's what trying new things is all about. Can't like them all :)

..And a weigh in

No movement. Hmph. I was not very well behaved this week, so that's not a huge shock. I think it will balance out with some weight loss this week, because I peeked at the scale today and was encouraged.

I try to only weigh in once a week, on the same day for some consistency. But I have a talking scale, and I'm only human!

Barley Results

Clearly I'm a terrible blogger. That being said... I made a beef & barley soup and it came out deeeee-licious. My mom said it might be the best soup I've ever made - I don't know about that, I make a LOT of soup in the crock pot. But I was so happy with it.

Beef stock, browned hamburg (cooked with onions and celery and some spices), carrots, mushrooms, garlic, some sherry, and barley. Gosh it was good. So easy to do and so tasty! My husband was surprised at how much he liked the barley flavor. I think he was expecting not to like it as much because he doesn't like beer, and obviously barley is a main ingredient there.

I may be keeping some barley in my pantry, just to add some variety. Barley succcess! Huzzah!

Another weigh in

Down another 2 pounds, for a total of x-5 so far :)

This week is still barley, as I have not run across anything else in my travels. I'm thinking tomorrow or Wednesday will be a good soup day.