I have made my triumphant return to the gym after a month away (other than a couple random evenings there) during physical therapy. Really, it’s more like 2 months away as I didn’t get there much during December, either.

And you know what? I got my ass KICKED.

I went to a Step class last night, which I’ve done before, but when I was in better shape. It was brutal. BRUTAL. I hit the wall about 20 minutes in, but powered through. About 15 minutes later, I caught my second wind, or at least no longer felt like I was going to die at any minute. So even though I didn’t get a lot of the arm movements down with the legs, I stuck with it. I made it through. And I realized ONCE AGAIN how easy it is to lose any endurance you’ve built up by working out.

Naturally, I followed up my triumphant return with a complete inability to walk. I twisted my ankle tonight on my way to knit group, which will result in at least a few days off from workout central now. *sigh* Luckily it’s not too serious, but enough to be annoying.

As for food, I’ve come to the realization in the past couple weeks that I am a stress eater. When I get stressed out, I head straight for the chocolate & Dr. Pepper. That’s been happening more often lately, so I’m having a lot of trouble calming the cravings. If anyone has good replacement options that will NOT make me want to run out and get soda & candy, I’d love to hear them.

I seem to have declared 2010 the year of blue. Or at least the first quarter of the year, that is.

I currently have 5 projects in varying shades of teal on the needles. I just can’t seem to help myself, I have always loved the blues. Pictured above: Verity (a slouchy beret), Aeolian (beaded shawl), Saroyan (scarf/shawl), & Some Cloudy Day (legwarmers for my poor numb legs). All of these I’ve started in the last month. Not pictured? My giant tweedy shawl that will be fabulous once I get back to it, if I don’t get tired of looking at all the teals first.

2010: Teal is the new black.

Un-freakin-believable.

I’m heading to dinner tonight with my dad & his girlfriend (D-squared from here on out) & I’m planning my dinner already. The GF wants some Mexican food, so we’re hitting a chain between my place and theirs.

I just looked at the menu – HOLY HELL, y’all. There is very little on there for someone actually trying to watch what they eat. Most of the meals are over 1000 calories by themselves, not to mention the amount of fat & sodium in each one. YIKES.

I’ve been off track for so long that I’ve forgotten how hard it can actually be to eat out and stay in my daily calorie/fat/sodium “budget”.

It’s no wonder so many Americans are so freakin’ fat – just looking at the menus at restaurants that have enough calories for an entire day, enough fat for a week, and enough sodium to shoot your blood pressure through the roof is enough to make me feel like I’ve overindulged.

It’s good that I’m looking at the menu & nutrition info ahead of time because it’s reiterating that I really need to take a good look at what I’m eating & make sure to track everything.

But HOLY HELL, y’all.

I have no “healthy Kara” update this week. Winter is bringing out the blah in me right now. The gray cloudy days, the dark sky when my alarm goes off in the morning, the fight to just get to work at a semblance of “on time”, it’s all just sucking my life force right now.

What helps? Knitting. Always the knitting.

Over the weekend I finished my Dipped Infinity Scarf, which went from “I need to make this” to “woo!” in about 10 days.

I pulled all the yarn for this out of my stash just a couple Wednesdays ago & went to knit night. I sat on the floor with my pile of yarn & we all went to town figuring out the best color combinations. I expected to need to pick up a skein or two to get them all right, but it turned out that I had everything I needed in my stash.

On Thursday, I cast on. By the following Saturday (just this past one), I sat & bound off while watching ice dancing* on the tele. I washed & set it out to dry, which it was STILL doing when I took pictures last night.

Ziggy doesn’t seem to mind that it’s still damp.

Details:
Pattern: Dipped Infinity Scarf by Laura Chau (rav link) This pattern, by the way, is one of the many you can buy right now & the designer will donate a portion of the proceeds to a charity helping Haiti.
Yarn: In the order I knit them:

• Claudia Hand Painted Fingering: Last Night’s Wine (~100 yards)
• Plucky Knitter MCN Fingering: Jezebel (~150 yards)
• Plucky Knitter Merino Superwash: Florin (~100 yards)
• Plucky Knitter Silk Merino Fingering: Atlanta (~100 yards)
• Sunshine Yarns Classic Sock: Crookshanks (~100 yards)
• ShibuiKnits Sock: Wasabi (~100 yards)
• Plucky Knitter MCN Fingering: Riverview Drive (~100 yards)
• Plucky Knitter 80/20 Merino Nylon Superwash: Cinzia Ziccardi (~50 yards)

Needles: Size 9 KnitPicks Options
Notes: LOVE this scarf, pattern, everything. I’m planning on using up some of my leftovers for some flip top mitts & a hat. Not matchy-matchy, but close enough to wear them together. :)

*I didn’t feel like getting up mid-bind-off to put in another DVD & it was on.

I’m having a love affair with my slow cooker. I love the versatility of it – the ability to make SO MANY different things. Since I’m only feeding myself, it’s not practical for everyday use (or believe me I’d use it daily), but it’s great when I’m in the mood for a soup, stew, or even chili. Just last week I took all the ingredients for my standard chili & tossed them in the crockpot on low for 6 hours. I came home to a great pot of chili for a lot less work.

Inspired by Angie, I used part of my day off to try out this slow-cooker Chai Tea Latte Recipe. Even though I took what I knew of the recipe & tried to modify it some, it was still missing something.

What I did:

1. I used the chai spice mix recipe from Chockylit (the same one for the Chocolate Chai Spice Cupcakes). Once I mixed it up, I used 2-3 teaspoons in the actual drink mixture.  I put the rest in a ziploc bag for later use.

• 2 teaspoons fennel, ground
• 2 teaspoons cloves, ground
• 1 tablespoon cardamom, ground
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon, ground (I left it out this time since I was using cinnamon sticks)
• 2 teaspoons ginger, ground
• Mix these together in a small bowl.

2. I used 4 bags of black tea (an English Breakfast Tea from Sal’s trip to the States in June) & 1 bag of a chai spiced tea.

3. 1 tbsp of sugar wasn’t quite enough, so about 20 minutes before I had some, I added 2 tbsp of cinnamon syrup to the whole thing.

4. I forgot the vanilla. No good reason, just blanked on it.

What I think it needs:

• A Chai Latte isn’t generally tea completely brewed in milk. There’s water in there, too. So I think this needs to be half water/half milk when you make it. The all mix concoction was too thick, especially after the liquid cooked down some. And I used skim milk.
• The spices were off, so I think it needs more of a kick. Even though I increased the spices by quite a bit, I think it could have used even more. Not only cinnamon sticks, but even some ground cinnamon. More ginger. A kick of nutmeg. Maybe a smidge of allspice. Perhaps even a tiny pinch of cayenne to give it some kick. I don’t know. I’ll probably play around with it some more sometime just because it would be fun.
• The water/milk combo may take care of this, but I’d like it to have a stronger tea flavor. So maybe even a couple more tea bags would work well.

Like I said, this was good, but not great. I think it could be with a few more modifications, though. If you decide to try it, let me know what you do.

I’m trying this update in a stream of consciousness* thing – updating during the week whenever I want to add something in.

Tuesday:

My jeans are too tight. They fit fine while I’m standing up, but sitting at my desk? Not so much. Sonofabitch.

Related – the WeightWatchers thing is tough. I’ve been comparing calorie intake to points. Yesterday I went over on points for the day, but still only had about 1500 calories. WTF? Must learn to snack on veggies. They are 0 points. Mostly. Apparently more than 5 baby carrots in one sitting accumulates a half a point.

I also need to get to the gym. The 30 Day Shred DVD kicks my ass, but I’m too easily distracted at home by all the things I need to do. I need to find a schedule and stick to it unless I am dying.

Wednesday:

The yoga mat I left on the living room floor last night is mocking me. I got distracted by all the things I needed to get done and didn’t work out, instead spending the hour between 9 and 10 scuttling randomly around the apartment picking up items here and there and (mostly) getting them back to their proper locations while Scooby Doo met the Globetrotters in the background. The mat is a reminder that I did not work out yesterday & I did not get up as I promised myself I would this morning to workout.

I have, however, completed my at-home physical therapy exercises as instructed (twice a day) every day this week. I am rocking the stretches and clamshells. Baby steps.

After my spectacular failure last night, I hopped over to facebook and declared that I would join my old friend Jessica in a rousing edition of “don’t fall off the step bench” next Tuesday at 7pm. I may miss the first hour of The Biggest Loser, but I can deal, hopefully becoming a big loser myself.  Besides, it’s available online by the next day.

1opm: Just finished my workout with Jillian (30 Day Shred). 20 minutes and I’m actually wheezing. WHEEZING. When did this happen to me? I was getting stronger and now I feel like I’m starting over. Amazing how quickly you lose the strength** when you don’t use it.

Sunday:

I seem to have hurt myself on Wednesday during my 30 day shred workout. Nothing serious, but I strained a muscle in my calf, so I decided to rest it some over the weekend. Don’t want to make things worse, y’know.

On Friday, I gave up on sticking with WW for the week. I did not do well on my first full week, but I am figuring out what are the better choices since I’m paying attention to more than just calories in/calories out now. I did just maintain the weight this week, so at least I didn’t gain with my terrible eating.

As for the picture, Angie has declared 2010 the year to finish things we’ve started, so I’ve added myself to the group. I’ve still got a long long way to go on the weight loss front & I really think I can get the last 60 pounds off by the end of the year if I can buckle down and get back on track. Tide Whiff Wise!

I have big plans to hit the gym for the Drills to Make You Sweat class tomorrow morning (off work for the holiday). If I can just get back into the groove, things will be fine. I hope.

*As an aside, I have NEVER spelled that word correctly on the first try. Thanks be to Firefox for having a spell check built in.

**I just finished reading Such A Pretty Fat & now I totally want to use “strongs” a la Jen Lancaster when I talk about this. Perhaps once I regain some of my strongs I’ll use it. :)

Over the holidays (which I KNOW were weeks ago now), I went a little crazy with the baking. Okay, I went a lot crazy with the baking.

I made several things to take to our family party on Christmas Eve, like my assigned side dish (mental note: never try to make green bean casserole “healthy”. It tastes like CRAP), salted crispy treats (blogged on the kitchen mirror here as part of the “project with no name that involves cooking through cookbooks and saved links”), and a couple types of cupcakes.

The cupcakes were delicious, of course, but paled in comparison to the crispy treats, cookies, and fabulous snowball cake my aunt baked up. Luckily, I was able to send them home with another Aunt who was hosting her side of the family on Christmas Day.

See this cake in the middle? It’s a vision of deliciousness. The inside was chocolate with a cream element. YUM.

And I wonder why I gained a few pounds over the holidays. Let me think about that for a minute.

…

Right, anyway. I’m not here to wax poetic about my Aunt Norma’s cake. The woman made cakes for a living at one point, of course it’s fabulous.

I was looking for a holiday-centric cupcake recipe to bring to the family when I came across the Gingerbread Latte Cupcakes from Stef at Cupcake Project. Coffee/Latte – GOOD. Gingerbread – GOOD (and how much more Christmassy can you get with a food product?). The recipe CALLED to me. So I made it.

The cake recipe was prepared exactly the same with no modifications. The rest of it, however, was an experiment in frosting.

For the frosting, there are a few things:

• I made coffee extract by brewing a few tablespoons of coffee with about 1/2 cup of water in my french press.
• I could not find marscapone cheese (I have found it since. Apparently I did not look in the correct spot when I searched for it), so I went with a basic cream cheese frosting & added the flavorings.
• I went with a strictly latte flavored frosting.

So, what did I do? I honestly can’t remember all the details. But if I were to try to recreate my frosting, I’d do it like this:

Take an 8oz brick of cream cheese, softened. Whip it together with 1/4c butter (again, softened). Then you’re gonna add in 2 tsp of the coffee extract (maybe more. I was winging it) & a couple tablespoons of coffee grounds. Or maybe the amount in 2 K-cups. (Yes, I totally busted open a couple K-cups for the coffee grounds. Don’t judge me.) I just whipped that all together with my handheld mixer of doom, then added 3-4 cups of powdered sugar (until good consistency for frosting). Then I put it in a frosting bag (or a sandwich bag with a corner trimmed off), and frosted me some cupcakes. BAM!* You’ve got yourself some gingerbread latte cupcakes.

*I may have used Emeril’s coffee in the frosting since I didn’t seem to be brewing my small sample pack of it. BAM! indeed.

While I still have to talk about my knitted projects for the Handmade Holidays, I can’t yet. I still have to get some stuff packed up and in the mail. I am a slacker. Whatever.

What I can talk about is the awesomely amazing hat that I finished last night.

Oh, this hat. I signed on to do a test knit for Sarah (aka The Plucky Knitter) & this hat is the result of that.

This is a slouchy hat knit with sportweight yarn, so it’s not for the faint of heart. The pattern is not hard, but you must pay attention to it – it’s easy enough that you might mess up if you get too cocky. I speak from experience.

Pattern: Golden Autumn Hat by Lucy Sweetland (rav link). I knit the large size.
Yarn: Plucky Knitter 50.50 Merino Alpaca Sportweight in Grey Ice
Needles: Size 4 & 5 KnitPicks interchangeables. (I actually swatched & had to go up a needle size.)
Mods: I knit one less repeat of the pattern because I was afraid I’d run out of yarn. In the end, I had 12g of yarn left, so I probably would have run out of yarn. Phew.
Started: December 23, 2009. Finished: January 10, 2010
Notes: The pattern was tedious. Again, not because it was difficult at all, but because I had to pay attention to every row so I didn’t screw up. But the awesomeness of the finished project far outweighs any issues I had while knitting. I LOVE how this turned out. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I don’t want to send it to Sarah. I want this hat to be mine. Luckily, I’m a nice person & will get it in the mail as soon as I’ve washed and blocked it.

I have muscles in my hips that I’m pretty sure have never done any kind of exercise. Until now, that is.

Oh, the monster walk. It’s a new addition to my physical therapy to strengthen my hip & take care of my bursitis.

Did I mention that I’m a 90-year old woman? BURSITIS? I am thirty-four years old – how do I have bursitis?**

Anyway, the monster walk. I put a resistance band thing around my ankles and walk like I’m a zombie in the Thriller video up and down the length of the gym. Five times. We started this on Tuesday and I was fine. I even worked out Tuesday night a few hours after I was done with PT. I thought it was a piece of cake. Then I woke up Wednesday morning. My muscles in both hips? They are sore. So I got to do the monster walk again today along with everything else.

My therapist tried to get me to balance on this round plastic thing – kind of like a Bosu ball, but it’s supposed to be easier – and then do squats on it. I laughed when he showed it to me. He knows I have balance issues. I mentioned 7 months with a personal trainer during which I was unable to do such a thing on the Bosu. I tried today, but I couldn’t do more than balance. Any time I tried to squat, I fell off.

I can stand one-footed on a piece of foam (which is harder than it sounds, trust me) for 45 seconds straight, but I can’t do a squat on a wobbly plastic thing. WTF?

I feel like I need a Bosu-type piece of equipment in my apartment that I just spend 20 minutes standing on every day.

Physical therapy is twice a week for the next 2-3 weeks at least. I can not work out on those days. I want to, but I can’t. Two prime workout days gone.

I also tried to get myself out of bed early this week to do the 30 Day Shred DVD. Yeah. That didn’t happen. Maybe in the spring I can do that, but not while it’s still dark outside.

So, I need a new plan.

• PT days: No workout.
• Gym days: 1 hour cardio (most likely a class of some kind).
• Non-gym days (days I can’t get there for whatever reason): 30 Day Shred DVD. Jillian does not mess around – it may be a 20 minute workout, but it is still kicking my ass.
• I’d like to add the Shred dvd in there on a couple of the gym days as well, but we’ll see how it goes.

I also joined Weight Watchers tonight (the online version). Food is my biggest problem & I know people who have done really well with WW. So I figured it couldn’t hurt to try it. And it looks like it will be good for me if I use the tools & start to learn about the food. I know fruits, veggies, lean protein, BLAH BLAH BLAH. But I need to start really thinking about what foods are filling, what I should be eating more of & less of, etc. So there’s that. I’m also hoping the points will be easier to figure out than tracking calories all day long. Maybe? I don’t know. I’ve never tried this before.

I’m toying with the idea of a once a week weight-loss/health update here. I weigh on Mondays, so maybe on Mondays.

Let’s recap the weights & a couple measurements:
Starting weight 238.0 (using the old scale – the new one weighs about 6 pounds heavier)
Amount lost (as of this morning, which includes slight gain over the holidays): 35 pounds
Starting bust measurement: 50″
Current bust measurement: 45.5″
Starting waist measurement: 48″
Current waist measurement: 43.75″

Did I really just share these numbers with the internet? Well, whatever. If the Biggest Loser contestants can do it, so can I.

Also, if anyone has an energizing replacement for the sweet sweet Dr. Pepper I can’t seem to completely cut out of my life, I would love to hear about it. Nothing with aspartame or HFCS. I still have aspartame issues – IBS isn’t just about stress. :)

Sometimes I think life was easier before I decided to get healthy. Then again, I’ll live longer healthy than I would at 240+ pounds.

* I couldn’t think of a title. There is a lame-ass song on the radio. It seemed to fit with the theme at the moment.

**I am very pleased to have bursitis, though, considering that this whole thing could have been much much worse. Bursitis = physical therapy & a super sexy heel lift. I’ll take that over surgery ANY day.

2010 did not start off well for me.

Shortly after midnight I got off the couch to go to sleep & spilled water all over my computer & knitting. No permanent damage, but not a great way to start the year.

During the day, I burned the crap out of my finger on my toaster. Don’t ask. It was stupid.

I got strangely depressed while putting Christmas away. I’m going to chalk it up to a tiny bit of SAD.

This can not be representative of how the year will go. Hopefully I just got the crap out of the way early.

I did, however, enjoy putting together some photo mosaics for the year.

2009 in review – a picture a month.

My finished knitting projects for 2009. There were 32 of them. I feel productive. Granted, half of them were completed between September & December, so I was more productive at the end of the year.

My other completed crafty projects for the year. Not nearly as prolific as the knitting, but still fun to look back on.