Hello Tiffy!

Going to the pool is a frequent occurence now, as we in Austin are approaching 100+ degrees daily, but today was especially memorable. So when I was back in California Tri-Trip Steak is one of the most normal cuts of steak that you can buy and it happens to be very lean and delicious. When we moved to Austin, TX we noticed that we could not find Tri-Tip anywhere. The first day we had settled into our new home we went to the grocery store and asked the butcher where we can buy it so we can bbq one up that night as a celebratory dinner and the guy looked at us like we were on crack. We have lived without tri-tip for almost a year now, but recently my co-worker who has a costco membership called to tell me they not only have standard-marinated tri-tip there, they have a chipotle marinated version! I went to costco and got a membership and omg isthat tri-tip ever good.

So today we went out to the pool to cook up the tri-tip and have some beers, and we made friends with these two guys there. One of them is visiting the other guy, military guy, just got back from Iraq. They asked what smelled so good, I told them it was tri-tip and both of them gave me this crazy look! So I explained again, what tri-tip was, and they had to try some, well I made them. They both agreed it was the best steak ever and one of them said “Holy shit, this californian knows how to make a steak, wtf”.

I think we need to do a tri-tip across america tour, cause honestly this shit is too good and how is it that a state that prides their meats like TX doesn’t know about it? Anyway. Fun day, and I fed a soldier.

Tri-tip news

So the other day I started feeling a lot better but now I would say I am a 9 out of 10. Finally. I think we all know to feel a 9 out of 10 any day of the week is a blessing, and I am so happy I am back feeling good and ready to rock. Only problem is that I need to rest more… I am working myself way too ragged but I was politely asked to work this weekend so of course I am doing so. My condition for working this weekend was that this week at some point I can wake up and open my eyes in the morning and decide to take a day off, to which I will text my boss and say I will not be in that day. That sounds pretty sweet to me, because I can treat every day like it is Friday and if I want to sleep in I can do so. If only every day were so luxurious.

I have had a decent weekend so far. J & I went to the bar across the street last night and had some yummy and fattening food with beer, we hung out for a while and talked about stuff. Tonight, I went out to dinner/drinks with my friend Monica. Monica I have known for a long time. I met her during my previous employed time at EA in the Bay Area and she was from Austin. She moved back, and it was crappy! Well that was pretty fun calling her up about a week before I moved here telling her I was moving here. What a shock, and it is awesome having a built-in girlfriend when you move to a strange new town.

My plans for tomorrow are wake up-go to work-come home-do my second job-look forward to day off. I am beginning to feel a real toll on my health, well-being, spirit, motivation, whatever you want to call it, without regular pre-determined rest……… I do not know how the Japanese do this.

Oh, CHINESE FOOD, where have you been for the past 12 days? You were right across the street, at Minhs, all delicious and carb-free and you never once called my name. Until tonight. Oh we had fun, but it felt so naughty. I can’t believe I practically staved myself on this diet the past 12 days with flavorless meats and other proteins while you sat idly by, all flavorful and spicy and ready for me to eat you. Well, now I will be eating you all the time, I will learn how to prepare you to be the best you can be. Only, in the future you will be consumed with a glass of red wine and perhaps extra vegetables if you are lucky. Day after tomorrow I will be normal again and maybe I won’t be talking to my food like this… nom nom nom.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I really hope it was awesome for you. We had 2 Thanksgivings this year. A close friend of ours invited us for dinner with her family and we spent the day there and we had a great time. J’s work provided the people that were working today with a Boston Market Thanksgiving Feast so technically J gets 3 Thanksgivings today! the bastard! Just kidding. He went to work for a few hours and nibbled a bit. Then he came home and we went to our friend M’s house. We had some great food and watched some football and chatted it up. After that, we came home, where I am heating up the turkey now. We won’t be eating dinner #2 (or #3) until about 10:30 tonight but we are both anxious. Our friend didn’t provide a few of our traditional favorites, and I had baked a green bean casserole which I MUST HAVE AT THANKSGIVING.. at some time during the day. So I baked that earlier, I considered bringing it to M’s house but I thought eh, I will eat it for our 2nd dinner and it is going to be soooooooo good too. We are also having cornbread stuffing, turkey and gravy and we got some pies (pumpkin and apple) from Marie Callendar’s restaurant. In a way I was kind of glad that M’s house didn’t have the few things we long for. It will make our 2nd dinner extra special.

Ahhh Thanksgiving, now to get stuffed! Damn work tomorrow!

I saw this new beer in the store and I had to try it! I love trying new things, of course and new beer, well that is a given! Shiner is a big brand here in Texas, it is brewed in Shiner, TX - makes sense, doesn’t it? In California, I saw the original Shiner on the shelves and I liked it, but moving here introduced me to many varieties of Shiner! This new one is Holiday Cheer. It is quite refreshing! The beer is described on the label as “Ale brewed with peaches and pecans and with natural flavor and caramel color”.

I didn’t take the peaches part seriously, as I couldn’t imagine it would taste very peachy. I brought it home and had one and wow, hello peachy! It was tasty! Subtle, yet slightly spicy and definitely peachy. Almost reminds me of peach pie, but it does not at all taste like a cider. It is really different but very unique and yummy! If you see it, give it a try.

A good way to not eat too much is to accidentally smear garlic/onion flavored cream cheese on a cinnamon raisin bagel…. 2 bites and you are done!!

Yes, I am back on this again. I technically signed up yesterday but that is going to be stricken from the record. Lets take a look at this and discuss my problems shall we? Notes below.

POINTS^® Tracker entries

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Morning
1/2 item(s) Cinnamon raisin bagels	2.5
2  tbsp Cream Cheese	3
Subtotal	5.5
Midday
1  serving(s) Lean Pockets Red Peppers and Pepperoni	5
Subtotal	5
Evening
2  medium potato(es), baked	5
1/3 cup(s) Reduced fat shredded 4 cheese Mexican style blend	2
2  can(s) or bottle(s) beer	5.5
Subtotal	12.5
Anytime
No entries for this meal time.
Subtotal	0
Food POINTS values total used	23
Food POINTS values remaining	4
Activity
No entries for activity.
Activity POINTS values earned	0
Check off these important items daily:
Water          Milk & Milk Products     Fruit & Vegetables        Multivitamin   Healthy Oils     Activity

What have we learned today?

Breakfast:
2 Tablespoons of regular cream cheese is 3 POINTS. That is pretty pinner if you ask me. However, Weight Watchers makes a VERY good cream cheese that is in a little cup, just barely enough for 1 whole bagel and is only 1 point. Those 2 tablespoons this morning were basically a pasty layer that I could barely taste. There are also very decent low-calorie bagels called Western Bagel that are also amazing, a bit smaller but 1 point as well.  As you can see, I was not 100% prepared for the start of this diet but I did lower my intake to 1/2 of the bagel. To improve this breakfast, the ideal solution would be 1 Western Bagel, 1 portion of the WW cream cheese, and 1 cup of fruit - a lot more food and would still be less points than my pathetic breakfast this morning.

Lunch-
Lean Pockets are very tasty and you can barely tell they are a lot lower of fat and calories than their Hot Pockets counterparts. The downside to this lunch was that while tasty, I was starving from my sad breakfast that I inhaled it. I was starving by 4 o’clock.
To improve this lunch there are too many things to do differently. I need to pack salad or fruit with my lunch as a side if I feel that I must go the way of the frozen lunch. No matter which frozen low-calorie/fat lunch I could have prepared, there will not be enough food to keep me til dinner. However I am going to be realistic (Since I am at work and all)  and expect to have something frozen nearly everyday, and try to pack a salad, nuts, or some fruit for the side.

Dinner-
Well my options were limited tonight due to the fact that we had no meat ready to cook and most of our soups are the creamy fattening ones. I made some potatoes in the microwave and added the WW shredded cheese and pico de gallo and green onions. I am pretty full right now but let me assure you it was not all that delicious. I would have preferered some Fat Free sour cream and it would have been ten times better. Meat would have been good, too. Considering I was in a bind, I think I did decently, and the veggies I added certainly helped the cause, I prefer meat with my potatoes and any kind of meat (chicken or steak or crumbled lean beef) would have made this 2-3 points more and ten times tastier.

BEER
Ok this is something I am on the fence about. I wasted 5.5 points on drinks. That is pretty lame but everyone knows it’s my favorite drink. If I had drank water instead I would have been able to fit in more food. However since I knew there was nothing to really prepare it was easier to make the beer choice. If I had had 2 light beers instead of regular, that would have been 4 points. I like my beer to taste good (in other words I hate light beer), but I probably should have had just one. Heck, while we are at it, I should probably have none. If I tell you I am totally cutting out beer, you may as well make a date with the flying pig tomorrow.

Fruit & Vegetables. Need more. My 2 potatoes and pico and green onions were pretty much nothing. I am not counting the red peppers from the lean pocket because I am not desparate.

Healthy Oils
They say if you follow the plan you must get all your checkmarks. I never understood the oils thing and I don’t care to follow it. I know some people take a shot of flax oil. No thanks.

Activity.
Need time.

Here is a printable coupon for a full sized bag of Flat Earth Veggie Crisps! I can not wait to try these, I have passed them up in the grocery several times because I am just not sure about them!

Abi at HeatEatReview asked me to review my new Presto Pizzazz. You can see my review here!

I am a happy panel member of Tragon. Tragon is a company that does consumer testing, mostly with new food and drinks that the companies are testing. Once you are a member every few months you will get an email whenever there is a new item for testing. The email is a series of questions that relate to what they will be testing and it is easy to fail, even if you are telling the truth, because they want a particular demographic with a certain preference to certain things to taste the stuff.

In the past, I have done Snapple Iced Teas, Wine, and a few others that I can not remember. It is a pretty fun process, there are cubicles like at an office, except they are all white. They sit you at the cubicle and you have a little sliding door in front of you. It is important to not discuss what things taste like as to sway others opinions. It’s cool!

Tonight I am doing a soft spreadable cheese one. I didn’t mention that they pay you very well for this kind of stuff. An average 30-45 minutes tasting session is 35 dollars or so, but the ones that are 2 days, one hour each day pay 70 dollars. Don’t worry, they will not give me Goat Cheese. I know this because in the little survey before I was accepted, it asked me which cheeses I eat and I crossed out Goat Cheese. If they were going to test any goat cheese they would have told me I couldn’t participate.