Some Nutrition Tips

So I've gotten a few comments from people saying that they have similar health-related resolutions and I wanted to put down some things that I've found helpful in the past (and present.)

The first thing is CARBS. They are not bad despite what a lot of people may say. The important thing is that you eat whole grain carbohydrates and not the white stuff. Examples of whole grain carbs are wheat bread, wheat pasta (Barilla is a good brand), oatmeal, brown rice, and whole wheat couscous. Anything that says "Enriched wheat flour" is not the same thing as whole grain/whole wheat flour so be sure to read the labels. When eating carbs, try on most days to eat them with your breakfast and lunch but not with dinner. This is because carbs are foods that we use for energy and by the end of the night, we're not using as much--therefore the carbs turn into sugar which then turns into fat in your sleep!

A pet peeve of mine that I see people do quite often (myself included when there are no other options) is to eat processed foods. That means ANYTHING that comes from a package. I know a lot of you are busy and don't have time to cook absolutely everything on your own but its SO important to check and see if that packaged food that you're about to eat contains partially hydrogenated oil. This ingredient is very bad and it quite often means that there's trans fat in that product. When you eat trans fat, it aids in clogging your arteries AND the scariest part is that once its in your body, it will stay there for the rest of your life! It is a chemical and should not be eaten! So again, check your labels!

What else? Oh yeah...artificial sweetners=BAD. These things are found in all kinds of things--splenda, diet sodas, some waters, and low-fat or fat-free yogurt. Any kind of artificial sweetner is a chemical. Just think about it. Is it really healthy to drink a sweet drink that has zero calories knowing that it is a chemical? I know a lot of people that love this stuff. I used to drink diet coke all the time in college. Even now, if I feel a craving and there's a diet soda option, I may drink it. It's okay if you have that stuff everyone once in a while, but having it on a daily basis is not a good thing. I mainly drank diet sodas for their carbonation...such drinks made me feel full. Now if I'm at a restaurant, I always order water with lemon. That's it. If seltzer water is an option, then I'll have that with a lemon and still get my carbonated-full feeling! There are so many natural waters at grocery stores that have natural flavorings in them and are carbonated. Get out there and try them!

I know you guys all know that fruits and vegetables are extremely important. Colorful vegetables are great such as peppers, beets, sweet potatoes, carrots, and leafy greens. Eat lots of berries, apples, clemintines and oranges. Just include them in your diet. That's all I need to say.

The main things I can tell you are: don't diet...don't count calories...and don't weigh yourself. Not right now. When just starting off, get used to your new way of eating. It's overwhelming to exercise and eat healthy. There are days when you will go out to eat and dine at a friends house so you won't have an exact routine of what you should eat everyday. That's good because you're training yourself to making healthier choices outside of the comfort of your own kitchen.

My (Many) Resolutions

Here's my list of resolutions for 2009:

1. I will stop saying bad words...but lets be honest, it's going to take a while. My plan is to limit my foul mouth to one, maybe two bad words a day and then gradually decrease my allowance until I am not saying any naughty words by the end of the month. I need to focus on replacement words such as "fudge" "shnikey" "geez louise" "gosh darn" (Please feel free to provide any other suggestions)

2. I will floss my teeth everyday. I'm honest when I say that flossing is not my favorite thing to do in life and I'm lucky if I squeeze in a good floss twice a week! My dentist says my teeth are great but that's still not an excuse for not keeping my gums healthy. 

3. I will get back on the wagon with a healthy diet. In college, I was great at making sure I had enough fruits, vegetables, and protein throughout the day. Now that I live in a hotel room and don't have a kitchen...it's hard to maintain that balance. I also need to take my vitamins. 

4. I will exercise 5-6 days a week. Sounds like a lot huh? Well, I have done extensive research on health and fitness throughout my life and I'm going to honest when I say I've sort of fallen off the bandwagon. Before thanksgiving, I worked out everyday at the gym and was very happy with my effort...BUT then I'd go home and eat Oreo cookies so that kind of cancelled my exercise out. Heck, last year I was in grad school and worked 30 hours a week and I STILL had time to train for a marathon. It's almost better when you're busy cause you're less likely to develop this laziness. I will make the effort to alternate cardio and strength training every other day. Research says that you burn more calories and fat when you incorporate strength into your exercise regime rather than just cardio alone. This is because your body burns a lot of fat and calories to repair those torn muscles hours after you have left the gym. That sore feeling is a good feeling in other words : ) 

Okay, I think four resolutions is enough for me to conquer this year. It's official. I've posted it on my blog for all of you to see. I understand that I will not see changes overnight, and may not actually master any of these resolutions until the end of next year. But I've got time. 

Happy New Year!

Mike took me on our first mini-honeymoon in downtown Fayetteville. We stayed at the Hilton and ate at a nice restaurant called Pierro's Italian Bistro. We kept it low key by having a drink with dinner and another at the hotel bar. It was exactly how I wanted to spend my new years...although Molly said we were huge nerds cause we didn't go out! 

Trust me, I've had my share of fun outings for the new year--Celebrating the millennium in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, ringing in 2004 and 2006 at Times Square in NYC, and partying in the year 2007 at Wild Bill's in Atlanta. Here's a group of us at Wild Bill's close to Becky and Casey's one year anniversary. 

Now I'm sitting with Mike while watching Clemson play against Nebraska at the Gator Bowl. I enjoy watching Clemson play...although I'll admit I'm not a huge football fan. Plus, when the Tigers start playing bad, that's when Mike starts to get in a bad mood. I am on pins and needles hoping that they play well, otherwise my day won't be so fun : ( 

Christmas at The Quinns

Christmas has blessed me in so many ways! To start my two week reunion with Mike's side of the family, I got to spend the holiday with Mike's aunts, uncles, and cousins at The Quinn's house. We shared stories, opened presents, and even watched clips from our wedding video. 

On Christmas Eve, Mike and I went to children's mass with his brother, sister and parents. It's much easier to attend rather than midnight mass (I'm lucky if I ever stay up that late anymore!) After church, Mike, Steve, Liz and I had a gingerbread house competition. Mike's parents judged them when we were done and Steve and I tied for first place : ) Then his parents read "Animal's First Christmas" and "The Night Before Christmas" to us kids while sitting in front of the fire. I know it may sound  a bit corny, but it was wonderful to reminisce with childish Christmas traditions. I found that as I've grown older, I sometimes forget the important things and tend to concern myself with meaningless worries. This Christmas was a reminder to me of how I used to feel as a child and how important it was to be surrounded by loved ones. 

Santa and the family gave me wonderful presents to open Christmas day. Some of my favorites were a digital picture frame, a flip video camera and all kinds of kitchen aid utensils/pots and pans! I was so spoiled! 

The day after, we all hopped into our car and drove to Myrtle Beach for three days. Mike's Aunt owns a condo there and we stayed right on the water. Below is a video clip of our view of the ocean. 

Now we're settled back in Fayetteville for the remainder of our break. Mike has something special planned for New Years so I'll keep everyone posted!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas together with your loved ones! 

Christmas Activities

This past weekend I went to Brooklyn and stayed at my sister and her fiance's apartment for our annual CINY experience. For the past three years, Molly, Ben, Howard (Ben's brother) and I meet in New York City and try to do a lot of festive holiday activities. Each year, we invite friends to join us. For two years, Taz (a great friend of Howard's and now of all us as well) joined us for CINY and this year my dear friend Bronwen from way back in 9th grade tagged along as well.











We started the event by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge into the city-something we've all wanted to do but never made the effort. It was SUPER cold but so beautiful to look at. Half-way through our walk, we stopped and sipped on hot cider that Mol had packed in her purse for such emergencies. Once we crossed the bridge, we went to Union Square where there's a huge Christmas market every year. Then we went to BLT Burger and ate homemade burgers (or veggie burgers.) Next, we met Taz in Times Square and walked over to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree and the ice skating rink. During this time of year, the place is a zoo and it's just too crazy to hang out there for very long. After seeing the tree, we stopped at the Mariott Marquis and sat in the biggest hotel lobby even know to man and again sipped on hot cider. We also ate cookie crumbs (back story-I made cute Christmas cookies and Mol put them in her purse to eat later...needless to say, they weren't very cute once we pulled them out.) I was a little disappointed cause every year that I go to the Mariott, there's an awesome gingerbread house display set up in the lobby but not this year. By the end of the day, Mol, Ben, and I went to the movies and saw "Rachel Getting Married" and then went straight to bed at 10 pm. It was a LONG day.





The next day, I helped Molly get ready for Ben's art studio Christmas Party (well I watched while she cooked in the kitchen.) By my third plastic cup of wine, I was very happy to be at the party and showed such happiness by spilling red wine all over my shirt and pants. Thankfully everyone was engaged in conversation so no one witnessed my clumsiness besides my sister. Plus I was wearing dark colors so you couldn't even tell!

Now I'm getting ready to drive down to North Carolina to spend Christmas with Mike and his family. I've VERY excited to see him-it's been three weeks and when you're a newlywed, that's too long! I'm super excited to spend the holidays with Mike's fam but am a little sad that I won't be with my mom and sister...the first time without them in 24 years!

Working in retail SUCKS

Basically my title sums up my entire blog but I'll rant anyway...

I took a position working at the Lord & Taylor department store over the holidays. I was hired to only work for two weeks but I can barely make it through my first week and (gasp) I want to quit! I mean, I can totally suck it up through next week BUT the problem is that this job is interfering with my vacation! I already had to cancel on two friends whom I made plans with before I was hired for the position and now I want to make plans with other friends but am being held back by this job. I only took this position at the advice of my oh so sweet husband saying that I should take it just to keep busy but heck! Now I'm skipping out on peeps that I want to see and that's just not fair! Oh well, I will sleep on it and see how I feel in the morning. I hate to put people out. But this job has NOTHING to do with what I went to school for so I shouldn't feel obligated to stay there.

On another note, on my day off, I made (and ate) plenty of Christmas cookies for our annual CINY (Christmas in New York) gathering coming up this weekend. I am so excited for it and will be sure to take lots of pictures to load on this here blog. Happy Christmas festivities everyone!

Missing My Husband and Movers

Yesterday, I dropped Mike off at the Philadelphia airport and watched as he made it through all the security points...minus me! We had originally planned for me to leave a few days after Mike because plane tickets are ridiculously expensive and leaving on a Wednesday saved us like $300 versus leaving on a Sunday. However, back in NM when we were trying to find great deals to fly to Mike's parents for Christmas, the best we found was over $1000! I mean, I love Mike's family, but there was NO way we were going to spend that much on plane tickets. If we did that, no one would get any Christmas presents. So needless to say, Mike had the idea that instead of me flying back a few days after Thanksgiving, I should just stay at my mom's house and drive down to North Carolina for Christmas and meet him and his family there. We'd still be paying for one ticket, but I am basically getting two trips for the price of one.

That all being said, I love being home and spending time with my mom and sister. It's just weird to be without Mike because I'm so used to the little family that we've started. I miss our little Christmas tree in our hotel room too! (We named him Charlie) While Mike was here, we were finally able to open up all of our wedding gifts! That was fun although Mike said I made out more than he did because we got mostly kitchen stuff. I quickly fired back that the "kitchen stuff" would benefit him as much as me so he better not complain.

Anyway, after opening up the gifts, I had to get everything organized for the movers. Mike's stuff is already in Japan but mine has been in storage, also known as mom's basement. We really didn't have a lot of furniture before we got married. To compensate, we bought a brand new couch, coffee table, end table, mattress, and a huge t.v. console to hold Mike's 50 inch t.v. We got all of this with our wedding money from Ikea and the total was less than $900! Pretty good deal when you're a newlywed. All of the fun gifts that I am so anxious to use are still wrapped prettily in their packages...the kitchen aid, coffee maker, panini machine, belgian waffle maker, dishes, linens, pillows...okay pretty much everything! I can't wait to set it up in our new house or apartment. We really have no idea what we're going to get.

Oh, quick update! You might have been thinking, "Wait, wasn't there a problem with her asthma and moving to Japan?" Well, that all got straightened out when I met with the flight doc. I told him about my mild asthma and what the other people said about not letting me move because of that. He was a major, a great guy from jersey and his exact words were, "That's bull$@%!" Those are his words, not mine : ) He told me that my case of asthma wasn't even appicable to that rule but for safe measure, he wasn't going to put that down anywhere on the forms.

Now, I'm nestled upstairs with the pets while the movers are downstairs in the basement gathering all of my things. My mom is beyond excited to get my stuff out of here!