Recent obsession

OK, so ever since I impulse bought the chicken, I've been coming up with new ways to eat it, and here is one of my favorites:

BBQ Chicken Pizza
1/2 a whole grain, low carb tortilla
1/2 TBS pizza sauce (choose one without much added sugar)
1 TBS BBQ sauce (again, a low or no sugar brand)
An ounce (or so) of shredded cheese--I like to mix monterey jack and sharp cheddar
Seasonings (chopped onion and chopped cilantro are the traditional flavors, but I don't use either of them--I'm a plain jane kind of gal)
1-2 oz. of shredded, cooked chicken--like from a rotisserie chicken that you might have impulse bought at Wal-Mart (or maybe that's just me)

Preheat your toaster oven to 400.  I like to preheat the cookie sheet I use (lined in foil) for the time it takes for me to put the pizza together so it gets a little crispy.

Mix the 2 types of sauce together in a small dish.  Spread a spoonful of the mixed sauces over the tortilla.  Add the chicken to the remaining sauce mixture and stir until just coated.  Evenly place the sauced chicken around the tortilla; top with the cheese blend and any seasonings you choose. 

Place "pizza" onto pre-heated cookie sheet and put in the oven.  I usually go do something else for a while and then come back and check after 5-7 minutes.  If the cheese is bubbly and the edges are getting crispy, you're done!

Personally, I like the Fat Flush Sprouted Grain tortillas for the nutrition and the slightly denser texture.  I also don't worry too much about sugar free sauces, but I do try to avoid high-fructose corn syrup and I choose varieties with lower sugar when I can.

It's fast, it tastes good, it fills me up, has good nutrition, and makes me feel like I'm eating pizza.  What more could you ask for?

I impulse-bought a chicken...

...Let me explain.

I was at the Wal-mart with Goldilocks the other day, waiting in the purgatory of the longest checkout lines in town, when I saw a beacon of light--the checkstand rotisserie chicken carosel.  I am not making this up.  You know how at the grocery store at 4:00 they put all of the fresh bread, smelling of deliciousness and your future shame of eating half of it before getting home?  At this Wal-mart they do the same thing, ONLY WITH CHICKEN.  Genius.  I nearly bought two out of crazed delight before I remembered it would take me a week to eat just one chicken and the second would go bad before I could enjoy it.

And it got me thinking how things have changed since my gastric bypass 20.5 months ago (I'm counting the time like mothers do their children.  As an aside, when do they stop counting in months?  I actually heard a friend of mine say her boy was 36 months.)  Sorry for the tangent.  Anyhoo, it's one of those clearly illuminating moments of how things have changed.  I think Oprah calls them Aha! moments, but I'm afraid to use that term in case I have her goons sent after me.  That's right.  The Oprah goons.  I'm pretty sure they're real.

2 years ago, I would have impulse-bought a king size Snickers, maybe some gum, or the aforementioned French Bread Loaf of Shame.  Chicken?  That isn't fried?  Forget it.

So much has changed that it's hard to realize when exactly that happened.  Don't get me wrong--old habits WILL creep back in:  night eating, carbs, overeating, taking a piece of candy from a co-worker's jar.  I promise you, if you are still within your 1st year of surgery and thinking that it won't happen to you, that these things will happen.  I had people tell me, and I didn't believe them either.  But your own food demons will pop back up in an ugly way.  The key is to focus on the changes you've made and to stay positive that you have made enough of a change in your first year of surgery that you have the tools to beat them back into submission.

So today, I'm focusing on my new impulse purchase.  The Snickers didn't snicker at me or anything.  I instinctively and without much thought went for something that really feeds my body, and not something that feeds those food demons.  I beat them back...for today...

Les Miserables loves company

I went to the Les Mis show here in town with a friend of mine, even though I was sick (I am too cheap to let $60.00 tickets go to waste because of a little COLD!).  I had so much fun!  I'd forgotten that it's a big deal to get dressed up and go out to a show.  We're already talking about the next one we want to go to--The Lion King, and then Wicked in the spring.

Because I'm having fun learning about my new fancy I-gadgets, here's a pic of us:

I'm on the right--but aren't we cute?  And because it's a phone-photo you can't see how red my nose is from constantly blowing it.  And because we saw Les Mis, everyone around me was doing the same thing from crying, so I fit right in!

I think that when you are really overweight you don't do things that you love because they are physically too difficult.  And when you go too long, you forget about them and then wake up one day when someone asks you what your hobbies are, and you can't answer.  "Duh...I dunna know...Me forgets what me likes."  Truly, eating was my only hobby.

Tonight was a reminder.  I really like the theater.  I like live music.  I like getting gussied up and going out.  Now I just need to find a way to be able to do it more often.  Maybe I'll ask for some season tickets for my birthday or something.

Now I need to find at least 2 more things so I can have a nice number of hobbies to tell people about.

Send me your suggestions.  It helps if it involves wearing a cute outfit...

Only 4 or 5 stomach flu till I reach my goal weight...

Sigh.  I have a cold and am not feeling well at all.  There are two upsides:
1.  I have a dead-sexy voice when I get sick.  Like Kathleen Turner.
2.  I don't feel like eating.  Or drinking.  Or staying upright for longer than an hour at a time.  But I'm going to concentrate on the not feeling like eating.

I went to support group last night, before the onset of the cold symptoms (if any of my fellow group-ies get sick, please don't blame me as the Typhoid Mary).  I'm really glad I did.  I got to see a woman there who had her surgery about the same time I did, and is struggling with the same "bounce back" that I am.  I'm so glad it's not just me.  I hear all the time about post-ops who have no food struggles (or so they say) and I would like to kick them in the shins.  Not that I'm bitter.

I know that I should be proud of losing about 165 lbs., but the fact is that I still have about 15 pounds to go before I am out of the "obese" category on the BMI chart.  I'm starting to think that between the cravings for carbs, the thyroid imbalance, and the constant tiredness from the thyroid imbalance (i.e. lack of exercise), that I will not only never get there, but that I will actually gain weight from here.

Enter in the year's first illness!  Hooray!  A stuffy nose does wonders for cravings...

Gettin' high tech all up in here!

So, apparently I'm very into things that start with vowels.

I have an iMac, an E-Reader, and an iPod, and recently I just got an iPhone.  You know, a SmartPhone.  I have learned that they call them that because they are truly smarter than I am.  Here is my new favorite picture of a high school friend of mine and I giving our best "SmartPhone face" (ie. feeling really old and confused) with my new iPhone:

OK, so I did skip a bit, didn't I?  I went to my 20th high school class reunion, and had an absolute blast!  I was constantly reminded that if I had tried to go 2 years ago, I wouldn't have made it.  It was 110 degrees there, for starters, and at 350 lbs. I would not have survived.  Not to mention the plane ride, the walking, the rental car (they can be too small if you're big), etc.  The best part was seeing people that were a huge part of my life, especially my childhood best friend, S.  My parents moved away when I left for college, so I really hadn't been back to town since Thanksgiving my Freshman year of college and it's really easy to just drift away.

And, this part is a kick, almost everyone told me I looked exactly the same as I did in high school.  In fact, I'm about 1 size smaller now--the dress I'm wearing in the picture above is a 16/18 and my prom dress was a size 20.  THAT was really cool.  Now, if I manage to get back to my college for a reunion, no one will recognize me at all.  I bounced between a size 20 and a size 24 all four years (and I had super-short hair that changed colors about every 3 months with my whim).  I'll have to dig up some pictures of that another day.

Here's the other high tech-ness that I'm trying.  eHarmony.  I know, cliche, but I have no idea how to meet people and frankly I'm 37 and it's time I date.  I am horrified, terrified, and completely out of my league.  But I do believe that if something scares you a little it probably means that it's worthwhile to try it.

Here's the thing:  how do you tell someone you're just meeting (and that you might want to date) that your life was on hold for 10+ years?  Or that the last relationship I had was all one-sided?  Or that I'm trying to figure out what I like and who I want to be still?  It's like my personal development is still stuck at age 21.  And I'm getting matched with people in their 40's, who have had real relationships, been married & divorced, had kids, etc.  How the hell am I supposed to catch up?

I guess the answer is that I don't.  I can only be me--arrested development and all.  Wish me luck!