Monthly Archives: May 2018

Food Scheduling (or Trying Out New Things)

Posted on May 31, 2018 | Comments Off on Food Scheduling (or Trying Out New Things)

I’ve written about it so many times on here, but food issues are my biggest ones. It’s been a lifelong struggle and I’m guessing that it will be something I struggle with the rest of my life. I do hope that it will get easier for me one day, but I’m realistic in the idea that this will never go away completely.

I’ve struggled with what to eat, how much to eat, and when to eat. And when I started taking Vyvnase, the struggle of when to eat became bigger than ever. When I started taking it, I could go a very long time without remembering to eat and then it would backfire. I would realize that it was already dinnertime and I was starving. Forgetting to eat was a new issue for me and I really didn’t expect it to happen. So planning to remember to eat became very important to me.

For the past year or so, I’ve had an alarm to go off to remind me to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And it’s been very useful, especially to remember to eat lunch when I’m working. I don’t always eat full meals (especially for breakfast or lunch), but at least getting something into my stomach helps me not feel famished when I do remember to eat.

But when I was sick recently, I was barely eating. For most people, when they are sick and not eating they lose weight. For me, somehow I gain weight. I’ve never been able to explain it, but that’s how my body works. But because of this, I’ve always been fearful of not eating enough in a normal day and causing a weight gain. I know it’s crazy because I’ve done a super low calorie diet before and lost weight, but it’s still a fear in the back of my head.

When I was better, I assumed that I would want to get back to my normal eating schedule. But I was having issues with it. The biggest issue was eating a small breakfast before my morning workouts. I’ve always had a half of a banana or some peanut butter before a workout because I felt like I needed it to keep me from feeling nauseous. Lately even that much food was too much so I had some chocolate milk before a workout and that seemed to be fine. But now even doing that doesn’t feel right to me. So I’ve been doing my morning workouts on an empty stomach.

I know there is a lot of debate on if you should work out on an empty stomach or not. I’m not too worried about the studies because I need to do what is right for me. Some people say they can’t work out as hard if they don’t eat something first, but I’m still working my way back and rebuilding my endurance so there is really no way for me to know if it is affecting me or not. All I know is that I’m not feeling worse without eating right now.

I do try to eat something as soon as I get home from a workout, but I’ll admit that I don’t always do that. But even if I do, I’m basically eating 2 meals a day right now (there have been a few days where it was 1 meal, but I know that I ate too much). I’ve never thought that eating less would be ok with me and not trigger something, but at whatever phase this is of my life it does seem to not cause any issues.

I have friends who do intermittent fasting and love it. I don’t want to commit and say that this is what I’m doing, but I do know that most of my eating is taking place in a 6-8 hour period which does fit into the intermittent fasting plan. I’m starting to do a bit more research on it and how it works with eating disorders because the last thing I want to do is have this backfire soon and make things worse for me than what they were before. If it looks like this will be trouble, then I will go back to making myself eat the 3 meals a day. But I really hate to make myself eat something when I’m not hungry just because of what time it is.

There is a very good chance that this is just a short phase, like all my other food things have been. But I do just have to keep on trying what seems to be more natural and simple for me and hopefully something will work and stick soon. But I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned from all the different things I’ve tried is to not feel like I need to stick 100% to any plan or to feel like I’m stuck doing something. I have to allow myself to be flexible because that is the only way to figure out what I will be able to do and maintain.

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Default ThumbnailFood Plans (or Working From Home Does Have Some Diet Benefits) Default ThumbnailGetting Back To Better Food (or Finding My Own Balance) Default ThumbnailStill Figuring Out Meal Planning (or Will Food Ever Be Easy For Me?) Default ThumbnailGetting Out Of A Food Funk (or I Need To Get Back To My Good Work) Default ThumbnailIt’s Been A Weird Food Week (or Trying Not To Think Too Much About This) Default ThumbnailSplurging In San Diego (or Back To My Boring Food)

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Memorial Day Weekend (or Not Really Doing Much)

Posted on May 30, 2018 | Comments Off on Memorial Day Weekend (or Not Really Doing Much)

This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend and I really didn’t do that much. I did have my show at the Bowl (which was awesome!), but beyond that I didn’t make plans. When there is a 3 day weekend where the day off is Monday, I really don’t have extra time off. My normal day off is Monday so when everyone else has that day off as well it just makes stores more crowded for me. It’s a weird feeling when so many people ask what I will be doing with my day off and I just have to explain that I don’t really have a day off even though I do. It’s just not an extra day off.

In the past, I’ve usually had a party over the weekend since other people were enjoying having a 3 day weekend. This year, my friends who normally host a party had other things they had to do so they couldn’t host. I was a bit disappointment about that because I love their parties and getting to see all my friends, but of course I understood that they just didn’t have the time (and it is a big time commitment for them to always host the parties). I thought about trying to organize something at my house, but I just wasn’t feeling too motivated to do it. I also have such a small house that it can be tough to have too many people over.

I’ll also admit that in the past I didn’t really think too much about the idea of “celebrating” Memorial Day. I just thought of both Memorial Day and Veterans Day as days to thank those who have fought for our freedom and to recognize their service. But more people have been posting lately about the difference with the two days and what they mean. Memorial Day is about remembering those in the military who died while fighting for this country. The idea of celebrating about people who have died is a weird feeling. I know that people say we should be enjoying the freedom we have to do what we want and that is what those people died for, but it’s still a weird idea.

So between not having a party to go to and my feelings about what it means to celebrate this day, I really didn’t feel like doing much. This was a bit of an odd choice since I was just saying how sick of being home and doing nothing I was. When you are stuck at home sick and not able to do anything it can feel so boring. But when you choose to stay home and not do much that can feel amazing. And I was in the mindset that I just didn’t want to do much and that was fine with me.

Monday was also just a day to do all the things I normally would do on a Monday. I had a workout, I had errands to do, and I had to get stuff done to get ready for the week. I didn’t want to take that time doing things that I wasn’t really feeling like doing when I knew that it would affect how my week went. I did end up having a casual coffee date on Monday, but I also made sure that I didn’t neglect all the other things I needed to do.

Even with all my friends who were excited to have an extra day off work, it seemed like a lot of people were in the same mindset as I was. So many people were saying how they were just spending the day at home catching up on whatever they needed or wanted to catch up on. So I wasn’t alone in my feeling that this past weekend wasn’t really one to make a ton of plans or do try to do as much as you could. In a weird way, it helped me feel less alone being alone at home knowing that so many other people I know were doing the same thing.

Even with my weird feelings about celebrating this past weekend, I do agree that it is kind of the unofficial kickoff to summer. I haven’t made that many plans for this summer and I’m starting to try to think about what I’d like to do and start planning more. I know how quickly the summer will go by and before I know it it will be my birthday and the summer will feel like it’s almost over. So I do want to take some time soon to work on making some plans and coming up with ideas for what would be fun.

Sorry if this post is a weird one or a bit depressing. As I’ve written about on here recently, things have been a bit weird for me. I’m working on getting things back to my normal but it hasn’t been as easy as I had hoped. And I think my mixed feelings on the weekend really didn’t help me much get into a better mood or mental viewpoint. But I’m hoping to be back there soon.

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Default ThumbnailLow Key Labor Day (or Just A Regular Weekend) Default ThumbnailLack Of Plans (or A Lazy Weekend) Default ThumbnailJust A Normal Weekend For Me (or Lazy Days Are Surprisingly Busy) Default ThumbnailAn At-Home Labor Day (or The Unofficial End To A Weird Summer) Default ThumbnailVirtual Memorial Day (or Doing The Best We Can For Now) Default ThumbnailPre-Memorial Day BBQ (or Making Drunk Fruit)

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A Night At The Bowl (or Combining Several Of My Favorite Things)

Posted on May 29, 2018 | 2 comments

The Hollywood Bowl doesn’t officially open for the season for a few more weeks, but when it’s not the regular season they do still have lease events. I don’t usually go to the lease events, but when I see something I’m interested in I try to get tickets. So when I heard that they would be doing a screening of “Beauty And The Beast” with live orchestration and singers, I knew that would be a fun event to go to. And of course, I asked my Disney friends if they wanted to come with me and they did! When you mix Disney, musicals, and going to the Bowl you know it’s going to be a great time!

I was in charge of getting our show tickets and found seats in the first row of a section in the very back. I don’t mind sitting in the back but getting seats at the front of a section are the best! You have a concrete barrier in front of you that is perfect to use as a table for the food you bring with you. And we all got lots of random food to have a pretty epic picnic there!

We took the Bowl bus to get there, but because we are used to going on weekdays when there is rush hour traffic we got to the Bowl before it was open! We waited outside the security area for a little while before they started letting people in. This was the first time I got there before we could go in and it was a nice change from feeling rushed to get to our seats. We had to go all the way to the top to get to our section, but they had a few different photo spots and we found one that didn’t have a line so we took advantage of that.

When we got to our section, we were all so surprised about how empty it looked! I’ve never seen it look so empty unless I’m there when they don’t have a show and it was nice not feeling squished as we got to our seats and sat down.

We had over an hour before the show started so we took our time getting out all the food we brought for the picnic and enjoying the food. We had way more than what we needed, but it was all so delicious! We had various types of chips and garlic dip, goat cheese, olives, fruit, veggies, and desserts. We tried to only take out a few things at a time, but we ended up just stacking most things on the barrier in front of us so we could all pick and choose what we wanted. It ended up being perfect and we were all just so happy sitting back, enjoying the food, having good conversation, and getting excited for the show to start.

This show was similar to how “The Little Mermaid” Live was done. The movie played but the orchestra on stage played all the music. And whenever there was a song they had celebrity singers playing the various characters. But what was different and really amazing with this show was how they utilized the venue. There is a border around the stage area and they did projection mapping on that area that matched what was on screen in the movie.

It was so fun to see what they added around the stage and it really did add to the movie. It was just a nice special touch that made this event even more unique that it normally is. This is already one of my favorite Disney movies and getting to watch it in this setting was awesome. And whenever they had the celebrities singing it was even better!

There were a lot of fun and different touches that they did with the songs. You could tell that the cast had a lot of fun and since there are different puns and double entendres they were taking advantage of that. There were a few added jokes that I missed, but all the ones that I caught were funny.

While I’ve seen the movie recently, for some reason I thought there were more songs and the movie was longer. When intermission happened I was pretty surprised that we were already halfway through the movie. And there weren’t as many times that the singers were out and singing live. There were still a lot of times to get to watch the singers and have it be more than just a screening of a movie, but it was much less than I expected. It’s not a bad thing, just something that surprised me (and my friends agreed).

When the show was done, it was the typical madhouse to get down to the area where the buses get us. There is a time limit to how long you can take to get to the buses, but I have yet to miss one. And the worst case is that we miss it and get an Uber or Lyft to take us back to where we parked our cars at the bus pickup. But even with all the crowds and making a stop to go to the bathroom before getting to the bus, we were there with plenty of time.

I don’t have any other tickets for the Bowl yet this summer, but I’m hoping I’ll make it back to at least one or two shows this summer. There are so many times I just get tickets last-minute and I think I need to do that more often. I have lots of evenings free and I could go get a cheap ticket to watch one of the jazz or classical shows. It’s just something different in my routine that makes an evening feel a bit more special.

But I’m glad I made it out for this show because it was a really great night out and helped to get me to feel more like me. I’m slowly busting out of this funk that I’m in (more on that later this week) and I’m glad that I had this show to help out with that!

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Default ThumbnailA Night At The Bowl (or Movie Music With Friends) Default ThumbnailLast Minute Bowl Adventure (or A Very Hot And Humid Night Out) Default ThumbnailA Perfect Night At The Bowl (or Checking Some Things Off My List) Default ThumbnailAnother Bowl Night (or Not Letting Rude People Ruin My Fun) Default ThumbnailAnother Night At The Bowl (or My Parents Got To Rock Out) Default ThumbnailStarting My Bowl Season Early (or The Little Mermaid Live)

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It’s Mayhem Time (or Working My Way Through Some Tough Workouts)

Posted on May 28, 2018 | Comments Off on It’s Mayhem Time (or Working My Way Through Some Tough Workouts)

This past week of workouts was a themed week at Orangetheory. It was called Mayhem and the idea was the week would be all really difficult workouts. It seemed similar to what Hell Week is like and I was really excited about it. You needed to complete 4 out of the 6 workouts to get a water bottle and I thought I’d be able to do that. But then I realized the week was Sunday-Friday and not Monday-Saturday. So unless I switched up my days I wouldn’t be able to get the water bottle. As much as I love free swag, I just wanted to keep my normal schedule. So while I wasn’t working toward the 4 workout goal for Mayhem, I still had my 4 workouts and I wanted to work hard and do my best!

Usually my Monday workouts are at the Brentwood studio and they are the one class I go to each week that has a 3 group workout. But because of some scheduling things, I couldn’t do my normal Monday class. I needed to be ready earlier than normal. And in the past when I had things like my improv class, I would go to the class that was an hour earlier. But now, I figured I might as well go to the Culver City studio for the workout. Not only is it closer but it’s actually 5 minutes earlier than the class I would have gone to in Brentwood. So it was a win for me.

The workout was called Commotion and it was a pretty crazy workout. I started on cardio and it was almost all rowing. We had decreasing rows with so many squats in-between each round of rowing. There were 5 rounds (starting at 500 meters and going down to 100 meters) and then we had a 6 minute run for distance. I did it on the bike at my normal base resistance. The goal was to get back to the rower to start working increasing rows, but I only had about 30 seconds after completing my 6 minutes on the bike left so I stayed on the bike instead of wasting the time switching to the rower.

On the floor we had 1 long block that had increasing exercises. The first round we had bicycle crunches and hip bridges. The next round we added on chest presses using the straps. The next round added on triceps on the strap. The next round added on lateral raises with weights. And the last round added on front raises with weights. I managed to get through all of those rounds and made it to the bonus round which was 100 reps of running men. I didn’t get through even 30 reps before time was done, but I was happy that I got to that point in the workout!

Wednesday’s workout was called Epocalypse and it was a partner workout. Not only that, it was a 3 partner workout so it was like I got my 3 group workout in that I missed on Monday! There were 2 long blocks and at all times the rower was the person in control of the switches.

The first block had the rower doing 5 rounds of a 200 meter row and 10 squats (a total of 1000 meters and 50 squats). While they worked on that the person on the treadmill ran with increasing the incline 1% each minute. I was on the bike so I increased the resistance by 1 every minute. And on the floor we had burpees, seated knee tucks, plank work, and pull ups using the straps. I was a bit worried about it being a partner workout because I was feeling a little nauseous during the workout, but it seemed like my group was pretty equal in the time it took us to complete the row and my group didn’t seem to mind that I might have been a little bit slower.

The second block had the rower do a 500 meter row, 50 squats, and another 500 meter row. So it was the same distance and number of squats as the first block just with a bigger emphasis on endurance. The treadmill (or in my case, bike) person went for distance with increasing each minute. And the person on the floor it was high rows on the straps, rollouts on the straps, pullovers using weights, and sit-ups to squats. With both of the blocks, we pretty much were out of time after all of us completed the row. So we all got to use each part of the room twice (once in each block) and that seemed to work out well for me.

Friday was the last Mayhem workout and it was called Disturbance. It was a strength based workout and while I was starting to feel better from the cold I got, I had some pretty bad nausea that morning. But I figured I’d find some sort of balance for myself and would do my best.

On the cardio, as it’s been for a while (and will probably be for a while longer), I was on the bike. And I decided to do my best with doing the resistance changes. I had my resistance level at the same number as the incline would be for power walkers. The highest resistance I got to was 10 (which is sometimes what I use for my all out resistance) but most of the time the resistance was not that much higher than I was used to. The pattern was to do 90 seconds of incline work, a minute at base pace, 90 seconds at a push pace, and 1 minute at a base pace. We repeated this pattern 4 times to get through the 23 minute block. I was having to take my breaks to let the nausea go by, but since this is something I’m used to it wasn’t too bad.

On the floor we had 5 exercises and a row. Each round we dropped one exercise (so the second round had 4 exercises, the third round had 3, and so on). We had power jacks, speed skater lunges, low rows on the straps, plank work, and sit-ups. I was really slow on the floor work because I was feeling pretty awful by that point in the workout. I was taking breaks between exercises and in the middle of working through one exercise. But I figured that just taking my time and getting through what I could was the best I could do. I made it through 2 rounds (and did a 200 and 400 meter row) and was starting on the 3rd round when time was done. I really would have loved to have made it to the 5th round, but it just wasn’t meant for me that day.

Saturday’s workout was back to a non-Mayhem workout, but that doesn’t mean it was an easy one! It was another strength based workout and again I was on the bike. Usually strength workouts mean inclines on the treadmill (and extra resistance for the bike), but this time the treadmill had no inclines so things were much easier for me.

We had 3 blocks on the cardio side which all had rounds of push paces to base paces. I kept my push pace resistance at 6 and my base pace resistance at 4 which is what I normally do. My nausea was still pretty bad so I was taking a lot of breaks during the cardio. I do the bike on my nauseous days because the bouncing caused by walking on the treadmill makes me queasy. But this time, even the movement on the bike was making me feel that way! But I tried to pedal as hard as I could when I was going to make up for the time I was taking breaks and got my distance to be what I usually can get to when we have the first half of class on cardio without switching.

The floor had 3 blocks, but the middle one was more of a row block. The first block was lunges, high rows using weights, and toe touch ab work. I used 15 pound weights for my lunges and rows and a 12 pound weight for my toe touches. I’m really trying to use weight during ab work and I was glad I went for a slightly heavier weight for that. The second block started with a 300 meter row. We then had front raises using both weights and the mini-band. The band went around my wrists and I had to keep my arms apart (pulling against the resistance of the band) while doing front raises. I had my weights a bit lighter than normal but that was because of the extra work from the mini-band. And the last block was uppercuts and squats with weights. I was struggling at the end of the floor work, but it went better than my cardio work did.

I’m so glad I did the Mayhem workouts that I did. I would have loved to have done 4, but considering the circumstances I had there was no way for me to do that. But it did get me back into a good groove with my workouts and pushing me in the limited ways I can be pushed right now. And it got me very excited to see what will happen during Hell Week this year! I really want to get back to more of my normal workout stuff (including running) and I feel some extra motivation to try to see if I can get back there by October now!

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Default ThumbnailBack To My Normal Routine (or Working Through My Workouts) Default ThumbnailWorking Through Physical Challenges (or Not Letting Feeling Bad Ruin My Workouts) Default ThumbnailHaving Some Realizations About My Workouts (or Still Adjusting My Thinking) Default ThumbnailGetting Ready For The Dri-Tri (or Working My Way Through The Workouts) Default ThumbnailWorking Hard (or Some Normal But Tough Workouts) Default ThumbnailTough Workout Week (or I Made It Through My 4 Workouts)

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Finally It Feels Like Things Are Normal (or A Week Of Various Self-Care)

Posted on May 25, 2018 | 1 comment

I feel like I’ve been writing about being sick for months now! But I have been sick for almost a month now which is a pretty long time. I have a feeling it may take another month before I’m totally back to normal, but I am noticing a little bit of progress every day. I’m having fewer coughing fits each day (but still having a bunch) and I have less congestion in general. I am still a bit shocked about how hard I went down with this cold and how long it has taken me to even feel this much better.

I did take some time to be lazy and do nothing since that’s what you really need to do to get better. But I get so antsy and restless and felt like I needed to do more. I worked hard at ignoring that feeling and just lying low and the past 10 days or so were when I was really getting back to full force and just trying to make my life as normal as possible again.

I did some fun things like getting my hair done. Just feeling refreshed physically can do wonders mentally as well. I’ve also been practicing other beauty self-care things like using the nicer products that I have or using sheet masks to make my face look better. It can feel so special and luxurious to do beauty things at home that you don’t do on a daily basis. While I have my everyday body lotion, I’ve also got a nicer one that I rarely use. So when I do use something other my my normal products it feels like a real treat for myself. It’s the little things like that which help make things feel fancier even if they are still cheap things. I’ve been wanting to get a pedicure too, but that keeps getting put off so eventually I’ll be doing that too. I just don’t want to spend the money on a pedicure yet because I like to save them for when I have a good reason to get one.

I have gone out for fun things like the Lena Hall show. Even though while I was at the show I was dealing with several coughing fits and my nose was running the entire time, I still had an amazing time and that show was just incredible! It was a form of self-care by getting me out of my house and doing something. Sometimes you just need an excuse to get out to get yourself together and then you force yourself to feel better. I also had a date this week. The guy I met was nice, but not the guy for me. He was in LA because he’s in town for work (he may be moving here for his job) and we just had a pleasant night out. I could see him and I being friends if he moves here, but there was nothing romantic between us and neither of us felt chemistry. But again, it was just nice to get out and have some time outside of my house.

And I did some cooking which helped me feel extra productive. I know how important it is for my physical health (as well as my financial health) to be cooking at home as often as I can. And knowing that I can make an amazing meal and not need to spend all day cooking and cleaning is a nice confidence boost and another way self-care can just make me feel less sick. And now I have a ton of new recipes that I want to try so I’m going to work on some meal planning stuff so I can make sure I try things more often. Plus, if I feel like I’m getting sick again, I have better ways to make soup at home instead of having to rely on canned soup (which is nice, but not the most nutritious option).

I’m sorry that so many of my posts lately have been about me being sick. It really did dominate my life for so long and I’ve been working hard lately to turn that around. I’m working on adding things back into my calendar instead of making sure I have more time at home to relax and work on getting better. I need to move on with my normal life again and I think I’m finally getting to that. It’s nice to feel like even if I didn’t do a ton of stuff this week as far as big events that I still was getting out and doing things for myself. Even if those things are little things to help me take care of myself, I’m doing what I can to just be back to regular life again. This cold took over my life for far too long and I’m done with letting that happen.

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Default ThumbnailYup, I’m Sick (or Trying To Take Care Of Me) Default ThumbnailWhy Can’t I Just Have A Normal Week? (or Another Bad Week Of Workouts) Default ThumbnailTrying To Avoid Holiday Burnout (or Staying Home For Self-Care) Default ThumbnailFinally A Normal Workout Week (or I Love Having Nothing Crazy) Default ThumbnailFeeling More Back To Normal (or A Good Week Of Hell Week Prep) Default ThumbnailAnother Week In Workouts (or Finally Able To Do Some Jumping Jacks)

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My First Meal In My Instant Pot (or I’m Loving This!)

Posted on May 24, 2018 | Comments Off on My First Meal In My Instant Pot (or I’m Loving This!)

I wrote recently about how I got an Instant Pot. I had seen so many posts about why it is a miracle cooking device and have had friends rave about it. But I really wondered if it was for me since I’m a pretty lazy cook. But right before I got sick I decided to get one and see if it lived up to the hype.

Because I ordered it right before being sick, it spent about a week living in the box it came in and then about another week out of the box stored in my kitchen. But I set a goal that I wanted to try to use it at least once this week. I’m not always good about using new tools and appliances as soon as I get them and I wasn’t going to allow myself to do that this time.

While it did come with a little recipe book, I also know that there are hundreds of cookbooks that are specifically for the Instant Pot. I get cookbooks from the library so I can look at them for free and then scan the recipes that I love. But I was looking at cookbooks late at night and realized that I could get the e-books and make things even easier for me. I got the e-books and instead of loading them on my Kindle I put them on my iPad. Then I could read the cookbooks and take screenshots of any recipes I liked! I don’t know how exactly I will be organizing them or if I will be printing them out, but at least they are available to me now and they look much cleaner as a screenshot than they do when I scan them.

There were a bunch of recipes that I saved and some of them look amazing. But for my first meal in my Instant Pot I wanted something that seemed simple and didn’t have a ton of ingredients. I was a bit nervous about using it and I didn’t need a weird recipe to add to the stress. But in my saved ones I found a recipe for sausage and peppers that didn’t have a ton of things in it. And it pretty much was a recipe that said to put everything in and turn it on. I know you can brown food in the Instant Pot, but I didn’t need to do that so it seemed easy enough to me. So I got all the ingredients and made it the other day.

I knew that the time on the recipes wasn’t always accurate since it didn’t take into account the time it takes to get to pressure and whatever time it took to release the pressure, so I started making it a bit earlier than I thought I might need to. But it was still awesome to start making dinner at 5:30 and know it would totally be done by 6:30 (unlike my slow cooker which I need to start in the morning to have food at dinner time).

All I had to do to for the recipe was to dump a few cans of diced tomatoes and tomato sauce into the pot along with some water and spices. Then I put the Italian sausage on top and sliced a bunch of peppers and put that on the very top. It looked really pretty before I was put the lid on.

I was a bit nervous putting the lid on because I wasn’t totally sure I was doing everything right. And even though I knew it could take a lot of time to come to pressure I was worried that I did something wrong because it wasn’t switching over to the timer (which is what happens when there is enough pressure to start cooking). But after about 15 minutes it did switch to the timer and I started to relax a bit more.

This had to cook for 25 minutes and while I didn’t watch it the entire time I kept glancing over to it to make sure nothing crazy was happening. I don’t know what I thought would happen, but because there are so many different warnings I figured I should keep a bit of a watchful eye on it. But everything was fine and when the timer was up I was ready to release the steam.

So many of the warnings in the instruction booklet were about steam burns. I had asked a friend about releasing the steam and she said she protected her hand with a towel and used a spatula to turn the dial to release the steam. I did just that and while I jumped at first because the noise scared me, I was fine and everything was working just the way it should.

I was so excited about everything working that I totally forgot to take an after picture. But it looked amazing and like I had it cooking for hours instead of 25 minutes. The only thing I will do differently next time I make it will be to brown the sausages before cooking it. They weren’t bad, but they just didn’t look pretty and they could have used a bit more of a snap to them. But considering this is the first time making this recipe and the first time I used the Instant Pot, I think I did pretty great!

And this was pretty easy to clean too. It is nice with my slow cooker that I can use the liners so there is almost no clean up. I just have to clean the lid. But this has the insert that was really the only thing that needed to be cleaned and it wasn’t that tough to do it. I also wiped down the inside of the lid, but I didn’t scrub it (it doesn’t seem like people do that, unless I’m wrong). There are ways to use silicone liners inside an Instant Pot, but I don’t think I’ll be getting them because it wasn’t that bad.

I’m so glad I got my Instant Pot and I used it pretty soon after getting it. I know that I’ll be using this on a somewhat regular basis and it will totally help me with cooking. I know I’ve said that several times, but I think the convenience factor of not having to start cooking until almost time to eat will help me a lot too. With my slow cooker, if I think about it once I’ve already started work it’s too late to do it. Now, I can go to the store after work to get ingredients and still have time to make it and eat at a decent hour!

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Default ThumbnailI’m A Lazy Cook (or I’m a Fake Vegetarian) Default ThumbnailStill Cooking (or It’s Almost A Habit) Default ThumbnailVegan Fudge (or Another Super Easy Recipe) Default ThumbnailStock The Crock (or I Hope This Gets Me Back On Track With Cooking) Default ThumbnailCooking Routine (or Adding Flavor) Default ThumbnailThanksgiving Meal Prep (or Hopefully Everything Tastes Great)

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Continuing To Get Back To Me (I Needed My Hair Done!)

Posted on May 23, 2018 | 1 comment

It had been a very long time since I had my hair done. I’m not always the best about remembering to get it done as often as I’d like, but I’m usually pretty good about going at least every 3 months (in an idea world, it would be done every 4-6 weeks). But somehow I let over 5 months go by without getting my hair cut and colored and I knew I needed to fix that.

I also knew that I wanted to work on feeling more like myself after being sick. I still wasn’t totally better, but I know making myself look more like me at my best does help me feel better. There’s also something about feeling like you are pampering yourself a bit to help make you feel a bit less sick. I had gotten my eyebrows done earlier in the week and getting my hair done was just completing my transformation from being super sick to being me.

I’m lucky that my hairstylist is a good friend of mine. While she started first as my hairstylist, I now look at her as friend first and stylist second. But that also means that when I see her to have her do my hair it ends up being a lot of gossip and catch up time. I like that and I’m always at her house (where she does my hair) for several hours since we just end up spending a lot of time hanging out after she’s done with my hair.

I went into getting my hair done not really looking my best. I had washed my hair after my workout, but I didn’t put any product in it and didn’t bother to dry it. I just threw it up in a clip to let it air dry while I worked. There was no need to do anything to it since it was going to get done (but it needed to be clean). My before pictures are always with super frizzy hair looking a bit crazy, but you can also see how long it had gotten!

The ends were getting very scraggily and it needed to be cut and refreshed. But more importantly it needed to be colored! My hair has been going gray since I was about 20, but it used to just be a few gray hairs here and there. Now, it’s probably over 10% gray. And in my dark hair, it totally shows! I do have a product I can use to help cover the gray hair between getting it done, but I forget to use it from time to time and I hate how much my gray hair sticks out! The process of going gray has been getting quicker and quicker and I’m hoping it slows down soon. But I know in reality that it’s probably just going to keep getting more gray at a more rapid pace.

While I was having my hair done, we caught up on so many different parts of our lives. Because I post about online dating on here a lot, most of my friends are pretty caught up but they still love hearing the stories in person. And I have to admit that the stories I have are so crazy and interesting. If someone else had my life I’d want to know all about what’s going on! We also talked about her upcoming summer plans since her kids are almost done with school for the year. We’ve always tried to meet up in Tahoe during the summer, but unfortunately I won’t be in Tahoe at the same time as her family. But I have hope that one day our schedules will coordinate.

And while I was getting my hair done I also got to catch up with her kids. I hadn’t seen them in forever either and it’s crazy how much they’ve grown! And both of them were excited to tell me about the things they have been learning in school and how happy they were that school is almost done for the summer. I joked to them that weekends and summers don’t exist for adults and they thought it was funny that my schedule for my job doesn’t change just because it is summer.

Once my hair was done, it looked so amazing!

I had about 3 inches cut off, but it’s still pretty long. My hair grows quickly so I don’t think I cut off more than what grew in the past 5 months. But it feels so much healthier now that the ends are gone and it’s freshly dyed. Since I dye my hair a darker shade, it seems to coat my hair and make it feel a bit thicker (which is good since my hair is so much thinner now compared to how it was when I was younger).

But most importantly is that having my hair done just made me feel better about myself both mentally and physically. Things haven’t been that great for me lately and I needed this silly ego boost. I feel pretty again and not someone who was just sick and dealing with a guy who wasn’t treating me the way I deserve to be treated. While I’m still dealing with both being sick and feeling sad about the guy, at least I look pretty while dealing with it.

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Default ThumbnailTime For A Bit Of A Change (or Getting Chopped) Default ThumbnailGetting A New Look (or Two Attempts To Dye My Hair) Default ThumbnailAt Home Hair (or I Haven’t Done This Since I Was A Teenager) Default ThumbnailCoconut Oil Hair Mask (or Trying A Simple DIY Beauty Trick) Default ThumbnailGetting Pushed Into Changing (or A Story About My Hair) Default ThumbnailAlmost Deja Vu (or Not My Usual Hair Appointment)

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A Night Of Lena Hall (or Art Of The Audition)

Posted on May 22, 2018 | Comments Off on A Night Of Lena Hall (or Art Of The Audition)

I’m pretty open about the fact that I love musicals. I’m so lucky that I have a group of friends who love them too and they have become a regular part of my life. Musicals just make me so happy so I always love when I can have a night out enjoying a musical or seeing an incredible Broadway performer live!

And last week, I had the opportunity to see Lena Hall! I’ve actually seen Lena Hall perform live twice. She played both main roles in Hedwig during the run in LA and my friend Michelle and I went to see her play both (one way was in our season tickets and the other was something we bought on our own). So when I saw that Lena Hall was performing in LA, I immediately texted Michelle and we rushed to get tickets! Because we were purchasing them so early, we were able to do the cheap seats plus there was a discount code. So it ended up being a pretty affordable show for being such an amazing thing!

We knew going into the show that we were required to get at least dinner at the venue. I appreciated that they had the option to order dinner instead of having a drink minimum since I don’t really drink. Michelle and I got there early so we could eat and get our seats. We were seated at a high top table that was off to the side, but we were still pretty close to the stage. But we did realize that we were sitting right next to the dressing room so we knew Lena Hall would at least briefly be near us. We tried to order quickly so we wouldn’t be eating during the show and we both got their goat cheese pesto burger.

Michelle had read some not-so-good reviews about the food, but this burger was awesome! There was so much flavor and it was perfect! The fries weren’t as good (they were supposed to be garlic parmesan fries but neither of us tasted any garlic or parmesan), but it was still a pretty good meal. And we decided to splurge and got some dessert too. We couldn’t decide between the apple tart and the cheesecake, so we got both and we each took half.

After that, we were both so full but ready for the show to start! There was an opening act that played a couple of songs before Lena Hall came out. This was kind of like a one-woman show and it was called “Art of the Audition: From Falling Apart to Nailing the Part”. She told stories about various times that she auditioned starting when she was a child and sang the songs that she sang at those auditions. For example, when she was a teen and auditioned for Cats she sang “Dance 10, Looks 3” from A Chorus Line (which is a pretty hilarious choice).

Most of the songs that she sang as examples of what she auditioned with were songs that I was familiar with. And the stories she had were really funny. Many of them were similar to things I’ve experienced at auditions and were really relatable. She never tried to put on an act that she knew what she was doing or was better than others. She was just honest about how terrifying it can be to audition, especially when the part is one you really want.

She also discussed about how she struggled with trying to figure out what stereotype she could fit into since that is something that can be important to understand as an actor. She tried to fit different things and they never were right for her (which I totally get). But once she just was herself, she found the parts that were right for her or fit her type even if it didn’t seem that way on the page.

My favorite story of hers was when she discussed her audition for the Broadway company of Hedwig. She was at the final audition and was told to prepare a joke or a story in character. And she decided to create an entire backstory to her character to explain why she was at the audition and created a world where the character was there to get funding for a crowdfunding campaign. It was such a great story and a really good example of how you sometimes just have to go for it in the audition room. She had no idea if she made the right choice or not, but she made a choice and was memorable. And fortunately she booked the job too!

The show covered stories from when she was a child until recently and it was a pretty varied collection of stories (and the songs that went with the stories were pretty varied too). All of the stories were so funny and if there was no singing I would have still enjoyed the show.

But getting to hear Lena Hall sing was just wonderful. She is such a talented performer and I feel so lucky that I got to see this show since it only was happening for 1 night in LA. I would have loved to see it again but I guess I’ll just have to be on the lookout to see if she returns to LA again.

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Default ThumbnailAnother Night At Pantages (or Hedwig Take 2) Default ThumbnailAudition Horror Stories (or Sometimes I Like Things To Be Boring) Default ThumbnailMaking My Acting Bold (or Feeling Great From An Audition) Default ThumbnailAnother Day Another Audition (or This Is The Life I Love) Default ThumbnailAudition Friends (or The Kindness Of My Competition) Default ThumbnailAudition Fairy (or The Tale Of Two Auditions)

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Getting Back To My Workouts (or Dealing With Not Being 100%)

Posted on May 21, 2018 | Comments Off on Getting Back To My Workouts (or Dealing With Not Being 100%)

After having half a week of workouts off last week due to being sick, I was so ready to get back to Orangetheory! I knew at the beginning of the week that I was  probably a bit weak from taking time off, but I just needed to get back to my normal routine.

On Monday I was still feeling a bit sick and knew my workout was going to have to be a light one with much less intensity than I’m used to. It was a 3 group strength workout, but to be honest my focus on the workout was just to get through it.

I used the bike instead of the treadmill and I really didn’t focus at all at what we were supposed to be doing as far as incline/resistance. I kept my bike at what it usually my base pace resistance and never moved it from that during the 15 minutes I was on it. I had to take breaks to catch my breath or to cough probably every 2-3 minutes, but even doing the bike for 2 minutes was exhausting me. It was shocking how out of shape I felt, but I had to keep telling myself that it wasn’t necessarily being out of shape but still dealing with being sick.

Next I was on the rower where we had rowing and shoulder exercises. We started with a 500 meter row and did decreasing rows for the first half and then for the second half started at 100 meter rows that increased. Between each row, we used the mini-bands on our wrists to strengthen our shoulders. Just like on the bike, I had to take breaks during the rows. I would have loved to have done each row without a break, but I knew that was not going to happen. But I just tried to focus on the fact that I was there instead of what I wasn’t able to do.

And for the last part of class I was on the floor where we had 2 blocks. The first block was squats with weights, hip bridges, deadlifts, and side plank leg lifts. I used lighter weights than normal for my squats and deadlifts and they still felt heavy for me. The hip bridges were a bit tough because of my nose being stuffed up, but I still was able to do them and used a weight during them as well. And in the second block we had the mini-bands on our legs to do suitcase squats with a weight and squat walks. While these were a bit easier for me to breathe during, they were still tough for me to do and I had to take several breaks. This workout was far from being one of my great ones, but it felt great to be back and to be getting back to my normal life.

I was still feeling a bit congested on Wednesday, but I was definitely on my way to getting better. But I still needed to work on my endurance and getting back to normal so I stuck with the bike. This workout was a mix of endurance and power but for my time on the bike I didn’t really focus on that. I again just stuck with the resistance I use as my base resistance on the bike normally and tried to go as long as I could without taking a break. I still needed breaks every few minutes, but it wasn’t as often as I needed them on Monday. Technically we had 5 blocks, 3 as power blocks and 2 as endurance blocks, but I didn’t worry about that since I just wanted to work on my cardio and getting myself to where I was before I was sick.

On the floor, during the 3 blocks that were power based we had rowing blocks. The first 2 blocks were 150 meter rows with squats between each row and the last row was 30 seconds of a push row and 30 seconds of an all out row. For the 150 meter rows, I just worked on not needing a break and fortunately I was able to do that. And for the push and all out row, I just rowed. For the endurance blocks on the floor, the first block was chest presses while laying on the Bosu, sit-ups on the Bosu, and Y-raises using the straps. And the second block was lunges while holding a weight and triceps using a weight. I was so happy to be back to using a weight that I would normally use. I did have to take some breaks to catch my breath or to cough to clear my lungs (I knew I sounded gross but I warned people near me about that), but it was much closer to normal for me than I was expecting.

I was still working on getting better on Friday, plus I saw that the workout was going to be strength based, so I was on the bike again. But even though I go a bit easier on the bike, I did take it up a step compared to the past 2 workouts. I did increase my resistance for push pace, all out pace, and incline times. But I didn’t do a ton of variation with the resistance. I used the same resistance for my push pace resistance and all inclines. I didn’t want to push things too much. But I did increase it more than that for the all out resistance. It’s baby steps towards being back to my normal self. And while it is slower than I would like or expected, at least I am seeing some progress.

On the floor, we had 3 blocks. The first block was mini-band work. We had squats with single leg lifts and lateral squat walks. I was happy that I was able to do both with less difficulty than expected. The single leg lifts aren’t easy and with being congested I was worried I’d have very little balance, but that wasn’t the case. I did have to take more breaks than I would have liked during the block, but I’ve learned that will just be the case while I work on getting better. The second block was bicycle chest presses, lateral raises, and lunges. I was using slightly lighter weights than normal and I struggled with the bicycle presses since I was on my back and it was a little bit more difficult to breathe. But again, I pushed through and did better than expected. We ended with a 4 minute core blast which was definitely not one of my best core blasts. I was tired and starting to realize that I might have overdone it a bit earlier in the workout. But I did what I could and still felt impressed and happy when the workout was done.

On Saturday, I was feeling a little bit better but also was a bit sore from going hard at Friday’s workout. So even though this workout was a power based one that was a run/row and it would be ideal to test myself on the treadmill, I stuck with the bike. It was tough to not do the treadmill when I was feeling like seeing what would happen, but I just kept reminding myself that by doing the bike I was going to be able to be back to the treadmill sooner instead of getting sick again.

The run/row for me started with 3 rounds of .4 miles on the bike. After the first round I had a 300 meter row, the second round had a 200 meter row, and the last round had a 100 meter row. The second block had the same row pattern but the bike distance was .6 miles. I was using similar resistance levels to what I was using on Friday but I was able to pedal faster which helped me work harder. And when I had the rowing everything was under the time goal. I even managed to get within 1 second of my 100 meter row PR! I was not expecting that at all.

When I got to the floor we had 2 blocks. The first block was low rows on the straps, crunches, and plank punches. But between each of the exercises we had a round of lunges. And the second block was tricep work on the straps, toe reaches,  and mountain climbers with speed skaters between each exercise. I started the first block going pretty fast through everything. I even was using a weight on my chest during the crunches which was something extra. But when I got to the second block, my breathing issues kicked in. I had to take a ton of breaks to cough and catch my breath. I still got through everything, but I struggled. But in the end, I still did better than I had done in the previous workout. And that’s all I can hope for right now.

I honestly think I may end up being on the bike for a longer time than I thought. I’m still dealing with congestion and being short of breath. If this doesn’t go away in a few more weeks I’ll go to the doctor, but I know that with a cold it can take a few weeks to have all symptoms go away. But until I feel better, the bike is the safer option for me and I’m able to be a little bit easier on myself. But at least I’m back at my workouts and I am seeing progress and improvement. I’m just ready to be back to my normal self already!

 

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Default ThumbnailIt’s Mayhem Time (or Working My Way Through Some Tough Workouts) Default ThumbnailWorking Through Physical Challenges (or Not Letting Feeling Bad Ruin My Workouts) Default ThumbnailA Week Of Tough Workouts (or Frustration As Motivation) Default ThumbnailHoliday Workouts (or Making Myself Enjoy The Bike) Default ThumbnailHaving Some Realizations About My Workouts (or Still Adjusting My Thinking) Default ThumbnailWorkouts With Modifications (or Dealing With A New Injury)

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Feeling Like A Fresh Start (or Spring Cleaning and New Toys)

Posted on May 18, 2018 | 1 comment

After being sick for what felt like forever (but in reality about a week and a half), I was ready to feel normal again. I have a feeling it will be a little bit longer before I’m totally better, but I’m about 95% there. I’ve only got some congestion left and it’s so minor that I’m not even taking cold medication for it anymore.

But while physically I was feeling better, mentally I wasn’t in the best place. I had the issues I mentioned yesterday on here that basically gave me a day of just being in a low place. But what was putting me in a worse mood was my house being so messy! While I was sick I didn’t really do any cleaning and in my tiny house it really shows when I’m not doing a little bit of cleaning every day. So I spent an entire afternoon doing a major cleaning of my house.

Mostly I was doing the normal cleaning stuff like dusting, vacuuming, and wiping down the various surfaces in my house. I needed to do this for sure because my place was dirty but I also wanted to rid my house of any germs. Even though I don’t think there were that many germs left since they can’t live on surfaces that long, it was just the feeling that my house was germy that I wanted to get rid of. The cleaning that I did was a serious workout (maybe that was because I’m still a bit sick), but when I was done I just felt a huge sense of relief and normalcy in my life again.

But besides the normal cleaning stuff (which was more like a deep clean), I had so much random organization work to do. I’ve been slacking off on some of that stuff. For example I did a reddit gift exchange last month and I hadn’t put away the books I had gotten. But since I was cleaning my cabinet where I keep my coffee table books, I put the books away. I also had about a week’s worth of mail to go through (and bills to pay) and it felt good to get rid of all the junk mail that was sitting on my table while I was sick.

But the best organization I had to do was something that I was pretty excited about. Before I was sick, I did an order on Amazon for something that I’ve been wanting for a while and it’s just been sitting in a big box near my front door for over a week.

I got an Instant Pot! I’ve been thinking about getting one for a while and I just decided to go for it! While I love my slow cooker, it’s not always the most convenient thing to use. If I don’t think about cooking dinner until I’m done with work, it’s too late to use the slow cooker. But with this, I can cook things so much quicker!

I’ve got a few friends who have one (most have the same model that I do) and they have all raved about it. And I can’t wait to start testing out new recipes in it! I’ve only accomplished getting it unpacked and reading the instruction manual. And I won’t get a chance to cook in it for a few more days because of some meals out I have planned. But that gives me the time to do research online for some good recipes that I want to try.

Having a new way to cook more often feels similar to having my house nice and clean. It’s a fresh start in a way and the start hopefully of a new awesome way to eat healthier and cheaper at home. While I was sick I depended on cans of soup and microwave dinners. I’m craving cooking something again and I love that I have something new and fun to try out. I’m a little worried that I won’t be using my slow cooker anymore again, but I’m sure that even though there is a slow cooker option on my Instant Pot I’ll find some times that I want to use my regular slow cooker.

Even if I’m not totally better from being sick, I just feel so refreshed and ready for whatever comes next for me. It’s just such a good feeling to be moving on from a bad week and a half (that was bad in more ways than one) and feeling like I can take on the world. Who knew that having a clean house and a new cooking gadget could do that to a person?

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Default ThumbnailMy First Meal In My Instant Pot (or I’m Loving This!) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Feeling Pampered) Default ThumbnailDoing A Lot Of Spring Cleaning (or Trying To Fill My Day) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Needing To Declutter Again) Default ThumbnailIs It Too Early To Be Spring Cleaning? (or Out With The Unused) Default ThumbnailSlowly Spring Cleaning (or Tidying Up My Way)

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