happy hour

you know what, in most cases, 'happy hour' is an oxymoron.  think about it.  most of the time, atleast, when i find myself grabbing a drink, it's typically after a rough day.  i haven't been keen on drinking these days.  i found out that alcohol has a lot of calories in it...duh.  alcohol also stops your metabolism.  that means, all those mozzie sticks you eat during a night drinking or the subsequent binge-pizza-fest at sal's following a night of drinking, does not metabolize.  trust me.  it's science.


 alcohol is also not a friend of the athlete due to the fact it is hella dehydrating.  all reason aside, sometimes, you just need to get yo drank on...which brings me to today.

tensions are running high this week and as a result, homegirl wants a drink.

welcome to happy hour.  for our first round, i present to you the glory that is the low-cal margarita.

dudes, everyone is getting in on the "low-cal" margarita racket.  that chick from real housewives, chi-chi's, you know, everyone.  one time i was at the grocery store and i saw margarita-lime (generic) crystal light.  hells yes. i was like, get out of my dreams, and into my cart.

thus, the glory that is mixing low-cal flavored water with booze commenced. and god saw that it was good.

i call this drink, "the broke-ass burro"

ingredients:
tequila (any kind--we're not fancy people)
h2O (water lolz)
2 packs of generic margarita lime drink mix; (or the real crystal light stuff if you feel like that extra $.90 is burning a hole in your pocket)

1 pack of generic margarita lime drink mix contains 5 calories per serving, with 8 servings per pack (one pack when mixed with 64 oz of water.)  what we're going to do is put 2 packs of mix into only 64 oz of water...so now your dealing with 80 calories in 64 oz of mix.  why double it?  because it tastes better and seriously, 8 oz of ready-made margarita mix has 200 calories...WITHOUT THE BOOZE!  that's nuts.  don't even get me started on the 600+ calories you can find in a BLENDED margarita.

pour yourself one shot of tequila for every 8 oz of mix on the rocks and you're working with a margarita that only packs 110 calories TOPS with zero gut rot and more flavor than you'd expect.

as you can see, i enjoy mine in a nice, tall lenie's pint glass because again, we're not fancy people, people.

bottoms up

h&b

new feature to go with the new layout (let's hope the feature lasts longer than this layout probably will)

introducing: h&b
h&b does not stand for "hookers & blow" so you were wrong to assume that.  it does, however, stand for "health & beauty" which is something, i feel, without ever trying the hookers or the blow, is just as great.  not to mention more affordable and with 100% less negative consequences.

let's talk about sweat (baby.)

working out 5+ days a week, i sweat.  a consequence of sweat is obviously losing salt and water from your body.  i sweat like a beast when i run outdoors.  fact.

here's another fact, i haven't been doing a super great job of staying hydrated. i sweat like a beast when i run outdoors and apparently, i'm not doing a great job of staying hydrated. even 80oz+ of h20 a day has not been cutting it. enough water loss can really screw up your innards but let's focus on what's really annoying: dry skin.  i don't know about you, but my tummy can't handle 1000 gallons of water so until the cool, fall weather gets here and i don't have to wring out my sports bra, my solution to staying hydrated is in the medicine cabinet and not in the nalgene. btw: i use all the below products and love them.  btw pt 2: every product listed individually will not set you back more than $6 :)

eyes
eyes? yeah, eyes.  i wear contacts. if you wear contacts (and even if you don't) you probably find the sting of sweat falling into your eye pretty annoying.  that's salt, baby, and it'll dry out your eyes super fast.  i now carry eye drops with me errywurr i go to avoid that nasty burning and premature tired feeling.  i have episodes of true blood to catch up on.  i can't be going to bed early due to dry eyes.

for the peepers:

can't go wrong with some equate artificial tears.  thanks, sam walton.

lips
man, my lips get CRAZY dry when i work out.  i'm always licking the salt off them while i run.  couple that with winds that come with the outdoors and you have a recipe for sandpaper smackers.  it's not cute.  it can be painful.  no one likes making out with sandpaper.

for the smackers:

  

           

skin
a combination of outdoor running in the sun and wind, 2 showers (roughly) a day, and mild dehydration has turned my skin as of late all rough and itchy and flaky and all that other jazz.  alligator skin works for a lot of people (especially alligators) but for me, i prefer to have skin like a baby bunny's butt--super, super soft.

for the skin:

 

if it's good enough for babies, it's good enough for me...and it smells awesome

happy hydration, the drugstore way!

homsies.

made it out of mke alive, peeps...and not any fatter or skinnier than when i got there (winning.)

i wish i could post you some sweet tips to tell you how i managed to get out of that place without falling off the bus entirely but in all honesty, i didn't try anything really out of the ordinary. as far is eating is concerned, i didn't even have to try to eat heatlhy. there was no choice in the matter.

turns out, our corporate lunches and breakfasts were super healthy!  so healthy, in fact, that i hoarded mini boxes of kashi "heart to heart" <3 and low sodium V8s all week.  seriously, my work bag is full of hoarded snacks from the conference.  the company i work for, as it turns out, has a really strong and prevalent culture of healthy living.  every dish in the cafeteria had a calorie count.  everything was low-sodium.  there was tofu e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e...which is exciting for me. 

i'll tell you what did suck hardcore, keeping up on the old training program in a hotel gym with 3 treadmills and about 15 people fighting for them.  happy to say, i never went one day without getting a covetted treadmill.  don't mess with me and my treadmill especially when the only alternative is a shady, off-balance eliptical.  chick from boston learned that the hard way.

also in the suck category was little to no sleep all week.  i'm a light sleeper.  my roomie snored like ridiculous. sleepy alison has a hard time working out and she also really loves eating junk food...but for the most part, i kept that chick in check.

i did get crazy with it at the brewers/cubs game on friday night and pretty sure i threw down on a steak pita at cafe lulu and also anihilated brunch at cafe hollander this morning...and pretty sure i don't regret it.  i mean, really, we can't take ourselves or this life too seriously...you'll never enjoy it that way.

work-ation

Tuesday starts a whole week of corporate training for me. 

Pro: I’ll be even more kick-ass at my job by the time Friday gets here.

Con: It’s 9 hours a day of training.

Pro/Con: It’s in Milwaukee

Let’s focus on the last bullet point: my corporate training is in Milwaukee.  Friends, this is a double-edged sword for me. 

Edge 1: I love Milwaukee.  My husband lived there for about 5 years during our epic courtship.  The whole “not seeing each other except on weekends” pretty much sucked M-F.  BUT on most alternating weekends, I’d venture to the 414 for the brewers, the beers, the bloodies, and, oh yeah, the boyfriend.

Husband really lucked out on the whole “meeting cool people who do cool things” while living there and through osmosis and the magic of friendship and marriage, I have now inherited this fantastic bevy of chill people who know how to get crazy with it.

So, I get to spend a week in Milwaukee…with my husband…and my friends…and yeah, there’s some work in the mix, but all in all, that sounds like a pretty “pro” situation, right?  Right.  However…

There’s this whole “training for a half-marathon” thing and “trying to keep off some poundage” also going on in my life which brings me to Edge 2: responsibility.

Being responsible totally sucks when it comes to being in Milwaukee.  It especially sucks when the responsibility I’m trying to maintain involves getting in all my scheduled training for the week while on the road.  In all likelihood, this will involve a hotel treadmill. 

Responsibility also sucks when the training seminar serves box lunches which, on the whole, probably harbor no-less than 700 calories per meal full of bad carbs, sugars, and full-fats.  I mean, I doubt I’m going to get a whole-wheat pita stuffed with spinach and tuna with a can of V-8 on the side for lunch. 

ALSO, being responsible means taking it easy on the alcohol which, incidentally, hasn’t been a vice for me lately …but, folks, I have a Hold Steady concert, a beer flight at Rock Bottom, a Brewer’s game, and Saturday brunch on the docket—how can I NOT get back into the 920 without packing on like 5 lbs from tasty food and bitchin’ brews?

In general, it’s just tough staying on a workout routine and maintaining a healthy diet while on the road but in my line of work, I need to learn how to deal sooner rather than later because it’s about to get crazy up in here when it comes to travel and, well, you get better gas mileage hauling less ass around J

I have no clue how I’m going to pull it off…but I have some tricks to try out and if they work, you better believe I’m going to share them with you next week.

PS: I don’t think I used the “double-edged sword” metaphor thing correctly but if you’re reading this blog, it means you’re smart so you probably got the gist anyhow.

skinny dippin'

i love dip.  it's almost ridiculous how much i love dipping everything in some kind of condiment.  ketchup, hummus, honey mustard, greek yogurt, salsa (especially salsa)--love them all.  FACT: one day my husband came home and caught me eating a bag of chips and a jar of salsa.  he claims i was eating over the trashcan in a frenzy, exclaiming, "wow, you really went to town on those chips."  i think it was a little less ferocious :)

maybe it's because i like when my veggies, chips, fries, hotdogs, etc. have a little buddy to weather the violent digestion cycle together (no one should go through that alone.)

here's the thing, though.  one of the easiest ways to cut out a few extra calories/sodium/preservatives here and there is to get rid of the dips and condiments and all that jazz.  well, that depresses me.

to my delight, i've been finding, trying, and enjoying a lot of healthy dressings and dips...and i'm going to share them all with you in what i hope will be a recurring feature on this blog: skinny dippin'

without further adieu, i give you,  

CREAMY DILL DRESSING 

 ingredients:
1/2 cup low-fat mayo (i like Kraft with olive oil--the green on the bottle makes me happy and it tastes good)
1/2 cup nonfat buttermilk
1 tbsp chopped fresh dill (i can't keep herbs fresh in this house so i just use 1/2 tbsp of dried dill weed)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

directions: dump all the above in a bowl.  whisk feverishly until smooth.  yields 8 servings; 1 serving = 2 tbsp.

nutrition info: 21 calories per serving, 1 g of fat!

i use this dressing for A LOT of stuff.  if you add a little bit of greek yogurt or light sour cream, you can thicken it up and use it as a dip for veggies or pita chips.  otherwise, it's a great dressing for chicken salads.  i recently started mixing this dressing with 3 oz of tuna (bagged, in water) and the dill and lemon really brighten up that sad looking bag of tuna.

i served dill dressing (thickened with a 1/4 cup light sour cream) to my sister at our first-annual "deck day" (aka crazy booze-fest day)  the kid really liked it.  i served it again at crivitz (aka crazy booze-fest weekend) and it got good reviews.  i guess mentioning that both events had a lot of alcohol at them kind of makes you wonder if the dip really was edible. just gotta keep it real with you.

rule of thumb: when people not watching what they are eating and actually like the healthy stuff you make, that means it is legitimately delicious. i don't know about you, but it's easy for me to talk myself into liking foods because they are healthy regardless of what they really taste like (i use a lot of mental energy playing that game.)

howevsies, this dill dressing is a winner.

recipe adapted from:

(CookingLight: Fresh Food Fast, Weeknight Meals)

twelve weeks.

well, more like ten weeks...

i signed up for a half-marathon.  it's on october 29th and it's halloween-themed.  it's on my bucket list of things i want to do before i die and incidentally it's on my list of things i want to do before i get all pregnant and mom-like.  i figured now is as good a time as any to round out 2011 with a pretty major accomplishment for myself so we're just rolling with it...and i want an excuse to wear a tutu and let's face it, i can do that for a few hours in this race :)

i have about ten weeks left before the run.  i've been following the 'runner's diet' pretty closely.  the singles in week 1 of training followed by a family booze-fest in crivitz and an awesome wedding in week 2 of training were cause from some deviation.  but i still managed to drop some lbs so we'll chalk that up as a win.

as for training, it's been challenging.  i'm about a week behind since i was sick but even still i can feel my lungs get stronger and, most excellently, my husband said my ass is getting a little less bodacious.

a solid read

 i'm not getting any younger and my ass isn't getting any smaller.  more importantly, i'm not getting any healthier and my metabolism isn't getting any faster.

thusly, i'm putting all my eggs in this basket:

i found this in half-priced books while perusing one afternoon. i selected this book to be my little nutrition bible for the next twelve weeks (and you will soon learn why twelve weeks is significant)  here's what i like about it:

-it's straight-forward: it tells me how much calories i need to burn, what my optimal workout plan should look like, and what results to expect.  most guides out there are exactly like that but, i don't know, i'm just comfortable with this vibe.  i feel like i could fail.  and when i feel like i could fail and i'm not all hopped up by pictures of super skinny people in their old jeans built for five, i work harder.  which is why i have this blog, now. i'm putting it all out there because the stakes are higher if i fail...because you'll all know it.

-it's realistic: this book flat-out says, "you will not get where you want to in the time you want to" which for me is generally immediately.

-food is affordable: there's no crazy-complex recipes or snack recommendations or any wild supplements.  it's a plan that i can afford.

-it's not a diet: don't be fooled by the title, it's more a plan that supports changing eating habits and a basic run/walk plan for optimal results.

for the next twelve weeks, i'm going to give this program a try and we'll all wait and watch for the results together.  i'm a little nervous about the lack of alcohol and mac 'n cheese in this plan, but, hey, i'm also nervous about  having to wash myself with a rag on a stick someday and i get more anxious over the thought of that than a world without Spongbob mac.

alison

skinny jeans.

 

i cleaned out my closet a few weeks ago...well, to be totally honest, i threw a bunch of crap around in my closet trying to find a blouse i wasn't even sure i still owned.  underneath the rando collection of shoes, belts, pants, passports, and a mattress pad (?) i found a bag of skinny jeans. brand new jeans that i bought on ultra clearance in hopes of 'getting into them.'

i've never been able to fit in any of those above jeans...they are years old...there's a pair from the defunct 'steve n berry's'--never worn, tags still on.

these jeans are way out of style.  i don't even think i like any of them anymore.  but, that is besides the point.  what's more important, i found in this closet revelation, is not that i want my ass to once and for all fit in these jeans so much as i want to turn my god-given fat genes into skinny genes.

simply put, this fatty is adopting a more healthy, active lifestyle and i'm dragging you all down with me.

alison