Archive for June, 2009
Well, if you follow me on twitter, you know that I had a doctor’s appointment today — those are never fun! This one was particularly not fun, because I found out that I have to have surgery again. Remember my sexy legs? Yes, the ones with the circulation of an 80 year old?? Yep, well, looks like my vascular problems are back with a vengeance. My valves have once again collapsed (a bit more serious than before) and will need to be removed so that they don’t affect my healthy veins. The good news is that no main arteries have been affected and having the surgery will keep it that way! We grow new veins all the time, so while removing some veins sounds kinda serious, I assure you I’ll be just fine 
But tomorrow I’ll be scheduling my (second) surgery for July or August. I can’t say I’m happy about it. You all know how active I am and how much I enjoy rocking it out at the gym or even powerwalking with my mom. But I know that this surgery will contribute to my overall health and well-being and I’m pretty excited not to have pain in my leg anymore!
So now, onto the fun stuff – EATS! The Mister had to take a client out to dinner yesterday, so I met my family for dinner at one of our favorite local spots, Yours Truly. Check out this list of fun facts from the Yours Truly Web site. I ordered my favorite item on the menu, The Envelope, which is a fresh pita stuffed with baby spinach, tomato, cucumber, muenster cheese and choice of dressing (I order fat free french). Per usual, I asked that fresh mushrooms be stuffed into the envelope, as well.
- The Envelope at Yours Truly
Close up on The Envelope
It was delicious! The spinach and mushrooms make this a very filling sandwich and I love the extra punch of flavor from the French dressing. Gotta love that muenster cheese, too! I feel like I don’t have nearly enough opportunities to eat that goodness!
Have you ever had a surgery that required you to take a bit of a rest from your normal activity? How did you deal with it?
When the Mister joined in on all of my healthy practices and endeavors this year (i.e. joining me at the gym, taking an active interest in cooking, etc.), I knew it wouldn’t be long before the gadgets came out. See, I think I’ve mentioned this before, but the Mister is a bit of a ‘techie” (no, not trekkie– although, he is one of those, too ).
Little did I know just how much he could infiltrate his techie ways into our healthy living routines. I showed you last week how I’ve started using ‘Lose it!’ on the iPhone, but the gizmo that I’m about to share today has already proved its worth in my kitchen. Another point for the Mister!
What is this mysterious gizmo, you ask? My friends, it is nothing more than a simple digital food scale.
See, once the Mister started helping me with the cooking, he couldn’t understand why I didn’t even bother to accurately measure my ingredients before chucking them into the bowl/pot/whatever wasted so much time making sure I measured everything perfectly. Using his technology-seeking mind, he knew there had to be a tool to help. Enter: the digital food scale. After researching several models, he finally decided on the EatSmart Precision Pro.
EatSmart Precision Pro (image credit: buy.com)
We’ve been using it for several months now, and I’ve gotta tell ya — this thing is pretty awesome!
Let me break it down for you…
Have you ever tried to bake a delicious treat only to end up with something that didn’t achieve the accolades the recipe promised? Yea, me too. Well, after reading an article from Cooking Light touting the benefits of the kitchen scale, I learned the culprit could very well be the flour. See, baking with flour leaves VERY little room for error (especially with light baking), and even a couple extra tablespoons will leave you with a treat that would serve better as a doorstopper. With a digital scale, you’re able to slowly add the flour until the scale reaches the gram weight you desire. No more measuring cups!
I’ve also found that the digital scale has kept me accountable with my portion sizes. For example, my huge overflowing bowl of Puffins? Yea, that’s like 3 servings. My heaping mounds of peanut butter? Probably close to 2 or 3 servings — way more than my wishful thinking would like.
I’ve also discovered first hand just how much food manufacturers deceive us! I know, right?! The horror! Yes, sometimes a “cup” does not equal the gram weight for one serving (and I’m sure you know better than to think the under-estimate!)
While it’s fun to double-check portion sizes and keep myself accountable, I mainly use the scale for cooking and portion control. For example, I know that my Shrimp Summer Salad weighed 1710 grams total. So, for 1/6 of the recipe (suggested serving size, and also only 141 calories), I know to serve myself 285 grams. See how easy?
Do you use a food scale? What foodie/fitness gadget can’t you live without?
I guess I was subconsciously gearing up for the Fourth of July with my patriotic lunch, today. I couldn’t pass up these fresh berries that were on sale at the grocery store this weekend. I topped them off with some vanilla yogurt to complete the trifecta (red, white and blue!)
Berry Delicious!
The berries were so juicy and full of flavor — I LOVE seasonal fruits and veggies!
It was berry good!
Tonight I’m meeting my mom for a good power-walking session and then I’ll be digging into my summer shrimp salad with the Mister. I’m pretty excited for my SHORT work week this week! The Mister and I are both off on Thursday and Friday — and we have lots of fun activities planned – I can’t wait to share all of them with you! First I’ve gotta get through this week, though!
Are you going to have a nice long weekend, or are you going to be working?