caught my breath

Well, I wrote this long post during the first day of the ice storm, got freaked out by the flickering lights of the ice storm, and so did not post it.

And I haven't posted since then. :( I'm not very diligent about blogging.

100 push-up challenge:
I'm on day 2, week 2. Yes, you read that correctly, because I'm taking the long road to one hundred push-ups. Instead of six weeks, I'll be spending 18 weeks or half a year slowly building up my muscles and my endurance. I repeat a day's workout for a whole week-- three days-- before moving on to the next workout. My goal, besides eventually doing 100 push-ups, is make this workout a habit that fits into my grad school schedule. And it is working!

jumping squats:
Still doing the same number of jumping squats! Still an intense workout! I should push myself to add another integral of squats, which would be a 20% increase. ugh. My quads hurt just thinking about it.

no meat besides fishies and shrimp:
Well...I had bacon this past weekend, and a hamburger sometime last week. As long as I plan ahead, I do well. Sometimes, though, meat was being served, and eating it was inevitable, as I didn't tell people ahead of time. Sometimes I'm just lazy. Well, that's why I'm giving myself a year of experimentation. I think flexitarian fits me as a better label, although I saw a book in Barnes and Noble called The Flexitarian Diet. FYI, I'm not doing a prescribed diet plan. I'm just want to eat less meat, stay healthy, save money, lessen my environmental impact, and not die.

so what have I been eating? Here are some staples. Please note that I also eat cheese enchiladas, spaghetti, spinach, broccoli, veggie pizza, and shrimp-n-pasta dinners a lot, but I ate these things often before consciously trying to be a flexitarian.

*Spirutein, a vegan-friendly high protein mix added to milk or yogurt. I like the taste, it has lots of vitamins and minerals, and it serves as a good breakfast.

*trail mix. I found a trail mix where I actually like all of the ingredients. If I tried really hard, I could probably make it myself, but for this semester I just buy a pound at a time, divide it into portable snack sizes, and take to school on my busy days.

*Progresso brand lentil soup. Even though I keep finding recipes for lentils, I haven't tried any of them. This version makes me happy. Even Izzy the cat thinks it's good.

*tuna salad. I think I like chicken salad better, but I do not like egg salad at all. I really tried to like the egg salad, but it tastes so much better with tuna.

*fritatas: leftover veggies in an open-faced omelet (or a crust-less quiche) easy to make, easy to eat

*butternut squash soup: I loved butternut squash soup before this year, especially since I bought a half a bushel of squash at the farmer's market last fall. ahhhh.... warm happiness

*peanut butter or cashew butter and jelly with no high-fructose corn syrup: I haven't bought jelly made with high-fructose corn syrup in a long time, so that isn't a huge change, but eating this type of sandwich has become a regular on my lunch menu. Thanks, failing economy. If you like cashews, you'll like cashew butter.

*black beans-n-corn: Not really new, just more common, with cheese, tortillas, onions, diced tomatoes, etc.


hmmm....what else....Let's see. I've been thinking about what to give up for Lent, Since I'm already eating Lent-like diet and I'm not required to participate in Lent, it's been feeling somewhat pointless. Here is what I thought of this morning:

1) quit worrying. This technically meets all of the requirements for a Lent fast, aside from being an abstract quality. If I always knew how and when worrying physically manifested itself in my daily routine, I would simply worry less.
2) give up meat. entirely. Well, I'm not very good at eschewing all forms of meat, which is the point of Lent.
3)quit reading public blogs. By public blogs, I mean blogs not posted by people I know on an individual basis. Those I would keep. I mean blogs such as Freakonomics, Weddingbee, NY Times, CNN, BBC, The Kitchn, which currently divert my time and my attention. I've already deleted public blogs from my RSS feeds, except for PhD comics. This one just might be attainable.
4) blogging more! This one might turn into a bad habit, though.
5) reading something spiritually oriented before bedtime. Although this sounds like fun, it would be more work for me since I read non-fiction books all the time for class. It would require more self-discipline, as I would have to finish my grad school readings first. I'm not sure that's possible, as for every book I read, I find out about 3-5 more.

How are your New Year's Resolutions going? Do you observe Lent, or some other type of religious fasting?