Tag Archives: holidays

It’s beginning to look a lot like weight loss….

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For added effect, sing along with the accompanying music, starting at 0:28

It’s beginning to look a lot like Weight Loss
Everywhere you go
Take a look in the women’s gym
Glistening once again
With beads of sweat and stretchy pants aglow

It’s beginning to look a lot like Weight Loss
Exercise on every night
But the prettiest sight to see
Is the skinny that will be
in your own pair of jeans.

A pair of riding boots and an assortment of tropical fruits
Is the wish of Alyssa and April
Friends that will talk and go for a walk
Is the hope of April and Alyssa
And blog readers can hardly wait
For this song to be over

It’s beginning to look a lot like Weight Loss
Everywhere you go
There’s a gap in Alyssa’s jeans
One in the mall as well
The kind that doesn’t sell XXL

It’s beginning to look a lot like Weight Loss
Soon the scale will show
And the thing that will make me sing
Is the chime that you ring
Right within my iPhone (when MyFitnessPal reminds me to log in)

It’s beginning to look a lot like Weight Loss
Soon the resolutions will start
And the goal that will make me think
Is the goal of every human being
(to lose weight)…right within your heart.

You guys. I noticed it this weekend. My jeans are LOOSE. FINALLY! The scale also shows that I’m now down about 12.8 pounds since all of my medical hoopla was sort of figured out. YAY! How is it possible to lose weight during the holiday season? Well, I’ve been running every night, doing yoga when I can, and generally trying to not cram my mouth with peppermint sweets, which is no easy task considering it’s Sugar Land around here. Just wanted to quickly share that I’m finally starting to SEE and FEEL some weight loss. YAY!

photo(1)

Here’s a snap of me from this weekend, in which I can see the tiniest little hourglass starting to re-emerge from its winter coat of adipose. It’s weird – sometimes you just FEEL like you weigh less. I’m totally being lazy about the scale too – checking in when I feel like it at the gym, and for the most part, relying on my clothes to tell me how I’m doing. It’s nice. I’m being much more chill about it, and I have to admit, not stressing about it might be helping. I’m just really trying to be conscientious of moving my booty and eating less, in addition to taking all my thyroid meds and supplements.

How are you guys doing on your health journey? Fill me in! And tell me… which holiday treat tempts you most? I may or may not have indulged in Candy Cane peeps this evening… but there’s only 170 calories for three, and each is dipped in dark chocolate. It was worth it. Even if my now loose jeans are snug again tomorrow.

 

 

A merry merry christmas

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Hello everyone! Hope you had a fantastic Christmas (if ya celebrate). Matt and I celebrated Santa’s arrival by heading up to Petaluma, a little town north of San Francisco where both sets of parents live.

We woke up bright and early at 8 AM at Matt’s parents to open gifts. Santa generously gifted us with a beautiful Cuisinart juicer… which we’ve already used to make fresh orange juice, and my favorite, apple pear juice. This will be making frequent guest appearances on the blog in the next couple of weeks! Matt’s dad surprised Shirley, my mother in law, with a month long cruise to Tahiti and Fiji to kick off their retirement next year! Here she is after she opened up her gift – a mini cruise ship!

So cute!

After gifts at the Currans, we headed over to the Lofgrens to celebrate Christmas there, too. My dad made bacon egg cups – bacon cooked in a muffin pan, filled with a whole egg and baked with cheese on top. It was a protein-packed, heart attack of a breakfast – and an enjoyable one, at that. Here’s the recipe!

 After breakfast we opened gifts from the Lofgrens, and we scored all sorts of great things like a pair of calf-high boots, an adorable olive oil and vinegar cruet, underwear and cute sweaters. Everybody spoiled us – as they do every year – and despite the mountain of new stuff we got, I was reminded all day about the generosity and love that’s so abundant on both sides of our families. We are truly, truly lucky!

PRESENTS!

After gift opening was complete, we (the kids) saw the Muppets at the $3 theatre (WOCKA WOCKA!) and then we headed back to the Currans’ house for an amazing dinner of prime rib with Yorkshire pudding, creamed spinach, creamed corn and potato wedges. I made a pecan pie for dessert, and we also had some of my mom’s homemade fudge and kolacky, a Czech jam cookie. Matt’s dad is also quite the cook and I consider it a huge bonus that I married into such a food-loving family – now I’m surrounded by foodies on either side!

After dinner we headed back to the Lofgrens’ house where we had to play the annual game of Monopoly. The game started off slow for me, and I was bored within five minutes, assuming I’d be monopoly-less and broke after my second turn around the board. However… I scored $1200 from the free parking kitty, and before I knew it, I was rollin’ high – and claimed the official title of REIGNING MONOPOLY CHAMPION.

I woke up the next day with a raging stomach ache thanks to my celebratory feasting, and then it was back on the road to return to Los Angeles. I had a vacation day from work today but tomorrow it’s back to the grind. This was a wonderful Christmas holiday with both of our families, and now, with a few days left of work until the new year, I’m beginning to reflect on 2011 and think about small changes I can make in 2012. I hope you had a wonderful holiday, too – what was your favorite memory?

 

 

 

Ugly Sweater Party

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Hi Everybody, hope you had a wonderful weekend! I did! Saturday night we had a small party with friends to celebrate the upcoming holiday season. Matt and I had been wanting to celebrate with an “Ugly sweater” party for quite some time, and this event definitely did not disappoint. All of my future parties will be themed. They must be. Themes = awesome.

People started trickling in around 7 and we grabbed a quick group shot…

Quick! Take a picture before everyone's drunk!

Later in the night we had an “Ugliest Sweater Contest”… Here are our winners!

Our Prize Winners! From L to R - Sacha and Monica, third place. Daniel and Shelley, First place. Luis, Second Place.

The amount of details in these sweaters was amazing! Shelley hand sewed lights into hers, Luis’ said “Pimpin’ Aint Easy…”

Can you see that? "Pimpin' Aint Easy"

Some of our other attendees had awesome sweaters, too.. Check out the details on Emily and Matt’s! Emily also sewed on dangly Santa embellishments and created this charming vest for her husband Matt….

Matt looks thrilled about his outfit!

We had an assortment of yummy treats… like creepy Coraline-esque ranch dip snowmen with veggies….

A snowman made out of ranch dip!

And also some delicious “Jolly Jingle Juice”…. (This stuff went FAST! People love boozy punch!)

Please ignore my focused "MUST SERVE MORE ALCOHOL" face...

And if the jingle juice wasn’t enough to warm up frozen buns and hands, we had a fire bowl going outside to add some warmth to the chilly 50 degree So Cal night (go ahead and smack me, Midwesterners and East Coasters… but 50 is freezing for the sunshine city).

Roasty Toasty by the fire

The grad school gals cut loose and relaxed for a few hours, thankful for a break from looming deadlines and mass media jargon….

Smile and say "Hegemony!"

And the happy hostess enjoyed wonderful gifts from her generous guests, like this adorable drunken reindeer wine holder from Virginia…. (I named him BUZZED BLITZEN)

Buzzed Blitzen

It was a wonderful evening having fun with friends before the insanity of finals and the usual holiday stress kicks in – but this night was a great reminder of what life’s about… the good times spent laughing with your friends. Have you ever been to an Ugly Sweater party? No?! If not… We’ll have a giant one when we have a bigger house! How many holiday parties have you been to or are you invited to this season?

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!

 

Giving Thanks

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Hey Bloggies! I’m back after an awesome long weekend in Petaluma with my family. Matt and I are blessed to have amazing parents, two sweet siblings, and wonderful close friends. I have a lot to be thankful for! It was so nice to have a few days off and actually spend extended periods of time with them – and in true Thanksgiving tradition, much of our quality time spent together revolved around food!

Thanksgiving Feast #1

On Thursday, my in-laws came over to my parent’s house to have dinner with my parents and my sister and brother. Matt and I are so lucky that our parents all get along – in fact, they often have dinner together and hang out with out us being around! We’ve even been on vacation together. It’s really cool. My dad smoked a turkey, and we had mashed potatoes, cranberries, crescent rolls, wild rice, green bean casserole, yams and stuffing to go with it. I think I got a little bit of everything on this plate…

Feast #2

On Saturday, we had Thanksgiving feast #2 at the in-law’s house. Matt’s dad barbequed a turkey, and we had two types of stuffing (but they call it dressing – do you call it stuffing or dressing? Just curious!). There was a cornbread jalapeno stuffing that was kind of sweet, and a more savory spinach stuffing with sausage and olives. Tasty, tasty. The star of the night in my opinion were Matt’s dad’s prosciutto green beans. He sauteed the green beans with prosciutto, olive oil and marsala wine. They were incredibly delicious… and I had seconds. I’ll definitely be trying to make them!

Prosciutto green beans

We’re going to be having Thanksgiving feast #3 soon, because I’m a glutton. No, really it’s because we got a free turkey at work, and I’m not one to turn down free food! I picked up all the fixings and we’ll be hopefully preparing our own feast this week. Then, I can survive on leftovers for my last two weeks of grad school for the year of 2011.

This long Thanksgiving weekend was the perfect thing to get me in the Christmas spirit, and today I decorated the house with shimmering evergreen garlands and our mini tree. The house smells nicely of cinnamon and holly – and we’re feeling very jolly. Below is a sneak peek of our holiday card image… courtesy of Lynnette Joy photography. Aren’t we just the classiest couple on earth? 😉

How was your Thanksgiving weekend? What was the best thing you ate?

Happy Halloween!

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Happy Halloween, bloggies! These are the pumpkins Matt and I carved. Mine is Oogie Boogie from the Nightmare Before Christmas, and Matt’s is…. some creepy thing with big sharp teeth.

We’re having a small group of friends over to help pass out candy, watch movies and eat treats. Luckily for me, I’m learning that treats don’t all have to be sugary! In addition to the cauldron of Swedish Fish, Sour Patch Kids, Reeses, M&Ms and Twix, we’ll have a giant veggie platter heaping with celery, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and cucumbers. We also have goat cheese, gouda, light brie and Vinta crackers for a savory nibble.

We would have some of these if they hadn’t all been eaten in a voracious cleaning frenzy… After carving our pumpkins, I washed the seeds to remove the gooey pumpkin guts and tossed them with a little bit of olive oil and some creole seasoning. The result was delicious! Pumpkin seeds have such a fresh, unusual taste to them – and lightly roasting them brings out this wonderful nutty flavor.

I’ve found it a little challenging to eat healthy this week when I’ve been surrounded by candy and junk, but now that I’m finally getting over this horrible cold, I’m excited to head back to the gym and get back into my fitness routine. I’ve been doing okay at keeping my hands out of the candy cauldron, but the hectic pace of the week kept me from doing my best in terms of nutrition.

What do you have planned for Halloween – tricks, treats or none of the above?