Ky's Korner

[Chris55]

Just catching up on reading journals this morning. I've been off the radar screen for a few days. Really enjoying your posts, Ky, especially your shrimp episode, LOL!! Deveining tiny shrimp is a pain, big ones are much easier. Just use a paring knife, slit the shrimp and you can pick up the string of grossness with the tip of your knife and toss it, wipe it on a paper towel, whatever. Here in Maine we have very tiny shrimp, which they sell on the side of the road with their heads and feet still on. Their heads have these dagger things on them , which kill your fingers if you try and clean them. I did it once when we first moved here because they were under $1/lb. Then I found out why they were so cheap! You get maybe a half pound when you're done, you're bleeding from the daggers, and you have a mess of shells to clean up. Now I pay the $6/lb for them happily!!

Sounds like you had a great workout on your cleanup day - good for you for doing that! A good way to get some exercise and accomplish something

[Kyan]

Hey Chris!!

Yeah with you living in Maine you gets LOTS of fresh seafood/fish! That was fascinating about the shrimp - I have never seen them with the heads on and I wouldn't have known about the sharp little daggers! I don't blame you for paying more for headless shrimps - I certainly would!! lol

Hey, how are you doing?? Hanging in there ok???

Sadly my scale was only down 1/2 pound this week. After working soooo hard and not cheating, too! I was a bit bummed... but BOY can I tell I'm shaping up in the mirror! I stood nekked in front of the mirror this morning before stepping into the shower, admiring my flatter tummy! LOOOOOKING GOOOOOD!!! But still a ways to go. Just because I now look four months pregnant instead of nine doesn't mean I'm done. Bah!

Maybe I am gaining some weight in muscle or something.

[Kyan]

Have you ever looked at a package of shredded cheese? I feel so stupid - I had no clue that it included potato starch and sometimes corn starch! I hate to cook so I love the convenience of packaged shredded cheese - but what the heck? Kraft is the worst - but that's no surprise! The store brand cheese which I have always liked is the same. I found another brand that didn't have the corn starch but it still contained potato starch - I think to keep the cheese from clumping? Maybe it is in really minuscule amounts so it doesn't make much difference. It's just frustrating how hard it is to avoid corn! It's in EVERYTHING! Even the meat we eat is oftentimes corn fed! Can you tell I went grocery shopping tonight? lol

Where I live there is a major grocery store 8 blocks south of my house and also a Super Kmart to one side of the store and a Super Walmart to the other side. (Not right next door - but just a few blocks away!) There is a major grocery store and a Super Target 8 blocks NORTH of my house. Next door to the Target is a Sunflower Market. Two blocks north of my house is a Natural Grocers. My favorite grocery store is 17 blocks south of our house. Um.... what is up with all of the grocery stores in such close proximity??? Do we like to eat in my neighborhood or what!! There is also a Burger King 8 blocks north... and guess what... a Burger King 8 blocks south! Across the street from the north Burger King is a MacDonalds on one corner and a Subway and a Smash burger on another. The last corner has a Panda Express, a Chipotle and a Krispy Kreme Donut. Another Chipotles south. Ten blocks south is another MacDonalds and another Subway 8 blocks south of my house. I have three Wendys all within a 12 block radius. A Fazolis, A&W, two Kentucky Fried Chickens, a Pizza Hut, a Culvers, Jack-in-the-box, Jimmy Johns, Taco Johns, Taco Bell, Philadelphia Subs and a Gyro place called New York subs. Next to the MacDonalds 8 blocks north is an Outback and next to the Outback is an Applebees and next to the Applebees is a LoneStar Steak house. Eight blocks south is a Texas Roadhouse Steakhouse. Next to the Krispy Kreme Donuts is an Olive Garden.

I could go on and on and on. Unbelievable. I hate to cook.... and these places (and more!) are almost all within EIGHT BLOCKS of my house!

No wonder I got fat. No wonder America is fat! And Colorado has the lowest obesity rates of the entire country! Not for long!

Wow, I am blathering on about nothing. It was a looonnnnggg Monday - I need to get to bed.

Anyway............

Another Beachy day - not a single cheat and not a single temptation! Wooohoo!! No exercise either - Mondays are my day off. I actually feel guilty for not exercising today - how sad is that! My scale is stuck. I hate that.

[Kyan]

Jin - hopefully you will see this!

I was looking for your journal to post in, and couldn't find it.

I noticed your siggy - DAYUM girl, you are 5' 3" and you weigh between 115 and 120? I am sooooo jealous!! How in the world did you do it? Do you have kids? I swear my kids did this to me - stretched my gut beyond fixing! Well I KNOW my twins played a part. I would love to even get down to 125 but I never seem able to do it. My body loves the 130's. Mostly the high 130's. And I am 5' 2".

I am really impressed... and you are in phase 3, too! SUPER!!!!

[JeffInJax]

lol Kyan i actually cracked up laughing at your rant about all the stores around you, which i needed this early in the morning. So thanks, i see things have been good with you and you're staying completely beachy which is awesome! -Cheer- Keep up the hard work, it's inspiring.

[Jin]

Hi Kyan!! Sorry I have been away for awhile, lots of deadlines at work. It sounds like you've had a great few days! This is an old picture of me, when I was in the 130's, but the avatar size requirements are so tiny that I have given up on trying to upload a new picture. My tech skills are pretty limited, but I do know how to re-size a picture. I re-sized to 50pixels x 50 pixels and it was still too large of a file. I tried to decrease the quality but it was still too big! So I guess this is my avatar forever. But I like it because I'm on a beach

I've been on Phase 3 since 2008! I will throw in a week of Phase 1 every once in awhile when I am feeling like poop and it works wonders. I don't have a journal on the forums, but I do have a food journal that I keep on Google Docs so that I can update it from my phone on the go! I've kept a daily log of every single food item that I've consumed since January 1, 2011. And it's the best decision I ever made! It's tedious but it's extremely effective and is a great way to "zoom out" and see what my food trends have been. I also have a DailyMile account for my workouts. I run 4 days a week and do 1 day of something fun. Lately it has been snowboarding! But now with the summer months approaching, I will have to mix it up a bit.

And to answer your question, I haven't had any children... yet! I hope to someday! I want a cute little bundle to call me "Mommy!"

Oh and your neighborhood food rant reminds me... I had Olive Garden the other day. Eggplant Parmesan. It was AMAZING. SO DELICIOUS. With a glass of pinot noir. I was all... "I ran 8 miles today! I deserve this!" And then the tummy started to rumble. Then I made a bee-line for the restroom. And I felt terrible for the rest of the night, and still felt -off- the next morning. Like what in God's name do they put in the food to cause such stomach upset??? Sigh.

Anyway keep on beaching You can do it!!! And stay away from Olive Garden!!!

[Kyan]

Hi Jeff!!! How's it going? I'm glad my rant made you smile - it's all true! And after I wrote it I thought of a lot of food places I left off of the list - how sad is THAT? I was going to include a Birds Eye link to prove I wasn't just babbling B.S. but the Bird's Eye view doesn't label most of the buildings! lol

Hey Jin! I am seriously impressed with how good you are still doing after all this time! That is sooo awesome! I am starting to think that I will never be much smaller than I am now - my stupid body is happy being a roundish lump with handles on the waist. Ugh. It's inspiring to read about someone who has "made it" and STAYS successful!

I know what you mean about the Olive Garden - sometimes I have the same problem with the Outback. I am thinking it might be trans-fats or whatever they cook the food in, and not necessarily the food itself.

Oh - and I know EXACTLY what you mean about the stupid avatars!! I tried to use several pictures for mine, and the only one that was accepted was my cow. It makes me smile when I see it, so it's all good.

Is it possible to eat too many veggies? Can veggies be fattening? I am on a roast asparagus kick, and I can pretty easily eat two bundles at a sitting.

[Jin]

Oof. How's your pee smelling?

[Kyan]

HA HA HA HA HA!!!! Since I don't make it a point to pee sniff, I am happily oblivious!

I also haven't used a restroom out in public recently, so I have spared the innocents in my town and I am still welcome to shop in most of the stores.....

[smay]

How much olive oil are you putting on your asparagus when you roast it?

We've been eating a lot of it right now too. I only like the really skinny stalks. The large ones are too woody in taste to me. And we just found out that our 5 year old boy likes it too! Hurray!

[Kyan]

Hay Smay!!

Two tablespoons olive oil, 1/4th teaspoon salt and 1/4th teaspoon pepper. Cooked at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. And I'm with you - I like the thin stuff! I cut off those big old logs on the end!

Today I did a heroic thing. Well... to clarify - a BEACHY heroic thing. My ex picked up our boy from college and brought him to my house for a bit before the twins got home from school. He asked me on the phone if I wanted him to bring lunch... and after thinking about it for a minute I decided that nothing from fast food (that I could eat!) sounded good - so I told him "no".
He ended up bringing wings from T H E tastiest/best/most awesome wings restaurant in Colorado. (In my opinion, of course!) Two different kinds. BOY did they smell good! And he and my son kept waving them under my nose and trying to get me to eat them. I know they are fried and cooked in nasty sauce stuff....(but TASTY stuff!) so I held my ground and didn't eat a single one. My ex is about 5' 7" and he weighs about 240. (My dad says he is lying - that he weighs more than that - but that's what he tells me he weighs). And he has a poopload of health issues.... but he refuses to watch what he eats.. and I think it bugs him that I try to eat healthy foods.

Before my Beachy days I loved to get both the medium hot wings and the garlic parmesan wings - snark it down with a large order of french fries which I dipped in ranch dressing - and also a bunch of celery. Sometimes we'd get battered/fried zucchini or mushrooms to go with it... and I always drank two Cokes or Mr. Pibbs. MAN oh man do I miss those days!! Too bad eating crappy food is bad for us! I think I miss the Coke/Mr. Pibb most of all..... ha ha. I think diet soda is REALLY bad for you.... so that means no soda at all for me.

Tomorrow I am going up north to visit my married daughter and her husband. They want to cook me dinner and breakfast - they are also on the Beach. My daughter is 5' even and she weighs 105 pounds - she doesn't Beach because she wants to lose weight, she Beaches because it's good for you! Her husband lost 50 pounds in the last six months and he looks awesome! On Sunday we are going to go see The Hunger Games.

I am really really really REALLY really really really...... REALLY..... going to miss not getting movie popcorn. And a Coke Icee. Can you really enjoy a movie in the theater without the goodies?? I have my doubts.

And my scale is still stuck.

On Wednesday my trainer didn't show (turned out he was sick) so I ran sprints (8.0) intervals on the Dreadmill and rowed. Then on Thursday I had candlelight yoga - and the music was the best EVER!! Awesome class.

Tonight I stayed home and did diddley squat. I'm sick of exercising when my traitorous scale back stabs me.

[Chris55]

Good luck resisting the popcorn, Ky! The smell of popcorn always does me in. Sometimes I sneak my own popcorn or nuts into the theater. Between the unhealthy butter and the prices of the snacks, movies are deadly!

Good for you on the hot wings! I succumbed a lot to eating out this week and cooking for my sweet boy home from college. Last night I made baked mac and cheese, but made myself a cookie sheet filled with roasted veggies and a salad, so I had one small scoop of the pasta, but then ended up with a piece of cake!! We bring him back to school tomorrow, so Monday I am getting down to the business of Phase 1. Increasing those veggies, aiming for some veggie meals, increasing the water, and getting off my butt! I need to see that scale move downward!!

[Beaching It]

That's awesome Ky!! You are awesome! I know how hard it is to say NO to all the greasy yummy food from the past that we miss so much. I find that I don't miss it too much anymore but I understand. Too bad your EX is so unhealthy and they were trying to tempt you. That's great your daughter and SIL are on the beach and you get to spend time with them. Let me know how you liked the movie. It's all the talk here...

[bethy]

Hay. (amusing, what I did there)
Just dropped by to drop off your 2L.
And introduce myself.
My name is Bethy. I have P1 insomnia. So I've been reading your journal and now bird are chirping. I'm up to the part they put the squeeze on ( the red boobs mash. OW! Not sposed to make breakfast patties out of those). Way to make it a page turner. You can't have cancer and die because then I'd have to pick up the snack slack and *14* cups of perfectly cooked and seasoned parmesan popcorn would be too much to balance on even my well-adapted midsection and still be able to see my book.
Here's a true story about me. I went off the beach once. Accident: I was index-fingering the last of the parmesan out from between a few unpopped kernels in the bottom my bowl one thursday night (Not sure exactly when but Derek and Meredith were already married on the post-it). And I got to thinking about South Beach and junk food so I googled around and found an interview with Dr. A. where he actually rated junk foods from Bad (potato chips #5) to You're Going Straight to Hell (pretzels #1). WHO KNEW Like anyone in their right mind would be,what with Dr. A's personal blessing AND having just moved into the special part of the United States where Utz's Crab Chips are available AND not having had any for eons: I was psyched. I sprauled up off my towel, waded right out and got me some. I kept wading and snacking on spicy five-level-less-evil-than-pretzels chips *For Free* because they were buy one get one free at the Grand Opening of the new Giant grocery. Crab chips make your fingertips orange. so I paddled out a little deeper, to wash it off. Out where I could see the container ships heading out to sea in long lines. Big red boxes stacked all over them. White letters. that said CHEEZIT. It was just like Jaws. dun dun dun. AND she's gone. I tried to turn back to shore. Undertow, rut-roh. I swam parallel to shore for days. Then weeks. (resolution, rationalization, portioning, craving, caving, repeat) I drifted. My clothes started shrinking from the...salt water. I was lost at sea tossed helplessly among the waves and craves,when out of Nowhere I felt this tight feeling on the front of my ribs where that empty space was supposed to be for the bottom of my bra to sit comfortably and not be squeezing the life out of me like that. It must have been a rope because it Jerked me back onto the beach where I lived, hopefully everafter and crab-free.

Gotta go see if you pass your mammogram. Good Luck! Thanks for the reading material and the bean smash patties! Don't fall too hard for Mr. Pibb, he's got a bad reputation!

[Kyan]

Hey Chris and Beaching!! I am soooo glad you two are here with me, weathering the ups and downs and never giving up!

As for Bethy - welcome (Back?) to the Beach! You may be right about Mr. Pibb, but you can't help it when you love someone... and I truly think he is my soul mate. I'm not sure why he has to be a bad dude.... he's bubbly and fun and sweet and makes me feel sooo good (except for the headaches).... but he IS bad deep inside so I have to avoid him. And my other love Dr. Pepper. I think they are identical twins but don't quote me on that.

Your post has me intruiged... how the heck do you spell intrigued? Oh yeah - see the second way. CRAB chips? That turn your fingers orange? Reminds me of that joke about the guy who went to see the doctor because his penis had turned orange. The doctor did all kinds of tests and couldn't find anything wrong with him so then the doctor asked him to describe his usual nightly routine, to see if maybe that shed light on things. It seemed the guy did the same thing every night.... rented a porn flick and sat down with a giant bag of Puffy Cheetos to watch......

Yes I know, bad joke. And old! But you know how the stupid ones stay with you sometimes. My ex hung around for the LONGEST time....

Back to the crab chips. Are they really good? And are they really bad for you? I think all chips are bad for you, but I might be wrong. I was eating brown rice and almond crackers for awhile that are really delicious and I don't think they are too bad... and they make these crispy snap peas in a bag that are a great snack, too. Cheez-its are good, but I can resist those! As for the parmesan popcorn... I don't eat it anymore. It goes best with a diet soda, and I don't soda anymore. Parmesan is the BEST cheese, though. Try making cheese crisps with it sometime! Mmmmm!

I think the stupid mammo went ok.... they are always bad and I always have to repeat them but I still have my girls... so all must be well! I can't believe I put EVERYTHING in my journal. Diarrhea of the mouth here!


OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I almost forgot!! My scale MOVED! Last night I was thinking vile thoughts about how I might "do away" with my scale... and this morning I am DOWN!! I think the evil thing sensed that he could be replaced! Like a pound and a half to TWO POUNDS down... depending on how I balance myself on the scale and which angles I twist to and how many times I weigh myself and then take the number that shows up most often of this morning's weighings but then decide if the lower number showed up at ALL I MUST be the lowest number or close to it!!

So I am psyched. And I am dressed to go to the gym where I hope to row 5000 meters or just over 3 miles. We shall see.