Brekkie & Lunch

So, the Holey Donuts were a winner.  I wish the whole thawing and freezing crapola wasn’t a factor cause I loss major glaze in the thawing process, but all in all, these were great tasting donuts with very little fat and very reasonable calories.

I usually shoot for somewhere between 200-300 calories for a weekday breakfast and these allow me to munch nicely.  My three donut holes were pretty large (2-3 bites per hole) and just over 100 calories.  I paired them with coffee with about a tbsp of sugar.

And there was supposed to be a banana involved as well, but that banana was bad.  Bad, bad, bad.

And I had a Lean Cuisine all frosty and waiting for lunch, but I decided that I didn’t want it. In very rare instances, the cosmos align and I know the night before or the morning of what I want to eat for lunch and it all works out.  But I tend to not want whatever I packed for lunch and be ready, willing and able to move on to the thing I really want. So, I told Danny to toss his soup aside, don his jacket and hop in my ride for what I really, really wanted.

Which, today, was…

I know, I know.  McDonald’s is the bane of healthy existence.  But, it’s what I wanted and it really hit the spot.  The key here in weight loss mode, is to be very moderate.

I got the six piece chicken nugget Mighty Kids meal.  It was just what I needed and all for less than 600 calories.  Not too shabby.

The most wonderful part, though?

Mojo #2

I love everything about this thing, from the species (monkey, baby) to the pink to the I’m Fabulous t-shirt.  And McD’s allows you to connect with your toy because the shirt is not on the plushy when you get it, you have to dress it yourself.  And the little tag is so cute and symbolic.

Yeah, they didn’t make Happy Meal toys like this when I was a little girl.  But it’s probably even better when I’m a big girl!

And here is Danny and my newest mojo

He was going for sultry, smoky and sexy today.  How’d he do?

Catch ya on the flip side!

Oh, Happy Day!

So, I had a great day yesterday.  You know those days when nothing particularly wonderful happens, but you just feel good?  That was me yesterday.  Those great days are ones where I embrace my ability to let my worries and problems go and just live in the moment.  I want to be able to do that more often.  That’s why I put this book on my Kindle download list.

I read the sample chapter and I think it might be worth reading.  One of my latest endeavors is to conquer my thoughts.  I think it will be a lifelong journey.

Anyhow, my day took a turn for the better when I went to lunch with my co-worker Danny.  He’s this fabulous, outrageously funny and endearingly vulnerable guy who is originally from Uganda and has the slightest, sweetest accent.  We lunch together several times a week, usually in the crowded basement conference room, but sometimes we venture out to restaurants around downtown Grand Rapids.

Yesterday, I had plans to have the following for lunch…

and

Much better homemade, but works in a pinch.

Well, I decided that I didn’t want anything to do with my lunch.  So, we went to Coney Island so that I could have chili fries, which I was craving.  I only had my crappy iPhone camera with me and forgot to take a photo of the food!  But I did get a shot of my dining companion + my mojo.

Doesn’t he have a great smile?  He keeps me laughing throughout the day!

The colors are a bit washed out in that pic, so here’s a pic of how my mojo really looks.

My mojo is a McD’s happy meal Build-a-Bear.

The story behind him is that I was as sick as a dog one fine Saturday afternoon and my neice was visiting me.  She’s only 15 and while very bright and capable in general, she’s hopeless when it comes to actually cooking or ordering her own food.  I plan to rectify that situation this summer, but I digress.

So, there I was lying in a sweaty, feverish heap on the bed with my neice pouting at me that she was hungry.  I was hungry, too.  I am not the kind of sick person who can not eat.  I can eat and usually quite well even in the midst of a nasty flu.  My husband was at work and we were all alone and starving.  So, I called my brother to bring us food and what does he bring?  McDonald’s!

Great.  My neice was happy, I was not.  But I took the cheeseburger happy meal and gave her the Big Mac combo and when I opened the meal, my little mojo was inside.  My heart melted.  He’s just so cute and I realized that I would get better, things would be fine and sometimes life throws a Happy Meal at you when you want Panera Bread soup, but you just have to roll with it.  My mojo reminds me of that.  So, expect to see him in some off places!

After work, I went home and watched wrestling with the husband.  He is a huge WWE fan; he has recently started watching TNA Wrestling as well.  So, I am usually up on all the wrestlers and story lines.  While I am not a huge fan, I do enjoy watching it with my husband and since it comes on at least 2-3 times a week, we watch it a lot.

After I got him to bed (he works odd shifts), I fixed one of my favorites that you will see a lot of in this blog.  Southern fried pork chops.

Thin-sliced pork chops are dredged in flour and fried in canola oil for about 8-10 minutes on each side.  I had 8 ounces, liberally doused in this:

This is a staple in my kitchen and always will be. 

There was supposed to be a baked sweet potato involved as well, but I had some problems with the oven and foil situation + I loathe microwaved potatoes, so I decided to save it for another day.  I looked at my frozen sugar snap peas (my favorite veggie) and was not in the mood for them, so I passed them up.

For dessert, I decided on raspberry sherbet.  It’s one of the few dairies that doesn’t cause my lactose intolerance to flare up and it’s only 120 calories for a half cup, so I eat a lot of it.

My sherbet must be eaten in this blue cup that I found at the dollar store in sets of 3.  It cannot be eaten in any of the fancy bowls in my cabinet because it just doesn’t feel right to me.  I know, I know, I am insane, but I embrace said insanity.

I rounded all of this out with a tall cup of water and some King of Queens on the Tivo.

You may ask yourself, what the heck does this girl eat and how has she lost 42+ pounds?  Well, I am not all that healthy.  I am trying to be healthier, but I will never be a health nut.  It’s just not something that I particularly want to be.  I am not a regular salad eater and I love all kinds of meats and diet soda.  I am not big on veggies, but I usually manage to get at least 1-2 servings in a day.  I usually eat a lot more fruit than you saw today, huge portions of fruit.  I eat small breakfasts and huge dinners.  I try not to dwell on food as good or bad.  Instead, I look at them practically for taste value + calorie count and make my decisions based on that.  I eat anywhere from 1500-2000 calories on any given day.  I arbitrarily try not to go over 2000.  I try to work out at least 4 times per week and right now, it usually consists of walking.  As I lose more, I am planning to implement a variety of activities into my life, but who knows what I’ll like?  We’ll see.

Yesterday, this beautiful box came to my door.

They are currently thawing on my desk.  Them + coffee = breakfast.

My morning so far involved this

This train made me late for work.

And my to-do list for the evening is off the chain ridiculous.  I am going to Chicago with my bff Amy this weekend and I have a lot to do before I am travel-ready.

More soon.

My Blog + Other General Madness

Hi, I’m Jeanessa. 

I’ve been blogging off and on, inconsistently for the past year or so.  I’m so chaotic that I could not figure out how to blog properly.  Most blogs are about food or weight loss or fashion or fitness.  My blogs were about books, weight loss, food and other things.  Keeping up with them all became chaotic and overwhelming.

So, I decided to start a new blog that incorporated all of my madness.  So, this blog is essentially about my weight loss transformation (I’m down 42+ pounds right now, only 110 to go!), the food I love, the clothes I buy, what I’m reading, but most importantly, I am hoping that it will serve as a way for me to express my creativity and reconnect with myself.

I follow lots of blogs and I was reading a post by Melissa at Crunches for Cupcakes and she mentioned something about how much more cohesive her life is since she’s taken up blogging and is able to express herself creatively.

I’ve always been a creative person who was too pragmatic to embrace her creative side.  I’m not into art, I have trouble consistently expressing myself through my creative writing (although this is my chief talent) and I am too shy to sing in front of large groups (although I love to sing).  So, I am hoping that approaching this blog as an expression of my creativity will help me to lead a more cohesive life.  (Oh, yeah, and I use a lot of big words, too, it comes from being in school for so long, ignore it if it bugs you).

The last 3 or so years have proven to be tough ones for me.  I lost my beloved moma.

She was diagnosed with lung cancer in late February 2007 and she died at the age of 54 on July 14, 2008.  It’s been tough learning how to live without a mother.  The impact on my family has been interesting.  The family dynamics change, but overall I am finding that my relationships with my two brothers + sister + dad are strengthening.  I miss her everyday.

I’ve also had a miscarriage, marital woes and a large sense of losing myself for the past few years.  I’ve experienced out of control eating, slight depression and just the general feeling of wanting to curl up and escape from reality.

I read lots of blogs, but I have felt unqualified to blog because I don’t lead the healthiest life, I don’t have the most interesting things going on (traveling to exciting places, parties, etc.) and I don’t consider myself to be the best example of a life well-led.  But I am here.  I do have a voice.  And I want to live a better life.  In that regard, I think I’m like a lot of people.

So, this is my journey.