Three Good Things 1.22ish.15

Fell off the wagon already, but I’m climbing back on.  I had a day or two where making it through the day without crying was all I could manage, so figuring out good things and writing them down took more effort than I had in me.  But hey—now I have a couple of days to look through, so it should be easier.

1. New Orleans-style snowball break with a friend because sometimes you just need that much sugar all at once.
2. One of my favorite bloggers had good news to share.  Her hubby is a terrific guy by all accounts, so I was really pleased to read about her happeez. 
3. After-work drinks with a couple of my favorite coworkers.  Not too much alcohol, but definitely some interesting conversation.

 

I didn't actually drink enough to be hung over, but I considered it...

Bonus good things: it’s finally Friday and I have a dinner date!

Toothless

Had another tooth pulled last week.  Yucky.  It's healing reasonably well, certainly better than the last one.  It's been years since I had an extraction done and I was still a smoker back then.  Now, I have clean and happy lungs and healthier eating habits.  It makes a big difference.  Also, in talking with a friend who recently had one pulled, I discovered that penicillin seems to affect mental states.  She was on it for a week or so and said she thought that she was going crazy, so perhaps that explains the deeper than usual depression I was dealing with.  I hope to get back to running within a week or two and I'm done with antibiotics for a while, so things should ease up very soon.  Think happy, healing thoughts for me, please?!

Open wide, this will only take a minute...

One of the Grouches

Grouchy.  Worse than grouchy.  Actively bitchy.  Owl has been marvelously patient so far, but each time he leaves my place, I worry that it might be the last time I see him.  Not that anyone could see my concern through the grumpy exterior.  I don’t even want to talk to myself lately.  SAD is playing a big part—suddenly it’s freezing cold and grey every day.  Winter landed hard immediately after December 25^th and it’s not letting up.  However, I suspect that the last couple of weeks of indulging in random Snickers™ bite-size bars and candy canes and hot chocolate and my “famous” sangria and  potato chips and wine and toffee peanuts and Chinese food and…….okay, you get the picture.  It’s been tasty and fun to share, but the sugary peaks and sullen valleys are doing unpleasant things to my mood. 

I’m not making any resolutions because I inevitably break them (even the cool ones like “laugh more” or “use the word ‘crazypants’ as often as possible”).  I think I will do a 21-day fast instead.  This summer I was forced to admit that I am an ice cream addict, so I used a 21-day ice cream fast to break some bad frozen food habits.  It’s time to address the processed sugar demon now.  I thought about jumping on the Whole30℗ wagon, but that might be more hardcore than I’m ready for.  So here’s my plan:  

One of the Sarahs' 21-Day Processed Sugar Fast

Start:  January 6^th

Finish:  January 27^th

Step 1.  Box it up. 

For the next few days, I will start hiding all my processed sugar snackies from myself.  Starting with the gumdrops and fancy-ass chocolate bars, continuing through the liquor cabinet, and finishing with the baking supplies.  At home and at work.  Not that I have baking supplies at work, but you know what I mean.

Step 2.  Replace it.

Stock the cabinets with plenty of primal-friendly snacks.  Invest in nuts and fruit and olives and sardines (yeah, weird, I know—but I like ‘em).  Dehydrate some apple slices, whip up a batch of no-sugar jerky, and cook up some of the nuts with herbs and/or spices but no sugar or canola oil.  Stock up on coconut milk.

Step 3.  Stick with it.

Make my favorite primal-friendly recipes and ignore those chocolate cravings.  Drown those impulses in bacon and sweet potatoes (paleOMG has the perfect recipe for that!).  Distract myself:  Dance around the house, create outfits for the cat, make out with Owl, chew my fingernails, do some yoga, run until I can’t breathe, anything that might work.  Just keep telling myself “It’s only 3 weeks.  I can ignore anything for 3 weeks.”

So who’s with me?  It’s easier than a resolution, less restrictive than Whole30℗, and we’ll still feel awesomer when we’re done than we do now!  (Of course, if you’re feeling hardcore, you should absolutely check out Whole30℗, because it looks amazing, there’s a lot of options for support and motivation over there, and we’ll still be able to complain to each other about how much we miss chocolate and wine.) 

At last!

It's finally that time of year again.  The time of year when for a few days I can forget the drudgery of my cubicle farm job and throw myself completely into chocolate.  

Wait.

I mean, throw myself into making fabulous chocolate confections, not what you were thinking just then.  Sheesh.  Clean it up, people.

Anyway, here's the menu this year: 

Peanut Butter Balls:  Creamy peanut butter dipped in rich dark chocolate 

Candy Cane Truffles:  Sweet peppermint truffle surrounded by smooth milk chocolate 

Auz Truffles:  Luscious milk chocolate truffle filling, flavored with Alice White Lexia wine, and rolled in crisp sweet potato chip fragments 

Sweet & Salty Nut Clusters:  Spiced almonds, pecans, and walnuts combined with creamy white chocolate 

John Candies:  Satisfying maple crème center, dotted with succulent bacon pieces, smothered in lush dark chocolate, and sprinkled with crunchy sea salt 

Ginger/Fennel Bark Bites:  Bite-sized pieces of white chocolate bark liberally studded with crystallized ginger and sweet fennel seeds 

Paper Fan Truffles:  Velvety white chocolate truffle filling, perfumed with green tea and lychee, enveloped in deep dark chocolate, and dusted with black and white sesame seeds

Ooooohhhh yeaaaaaaaah.  They are real and they are amazing.  Who wants to invest in a promising chocolatier?

And just in case I don't get around to posting again before then:  Happy Solstichristmakwanzanukkah!  Ashes to ashes, dust to dust--drink good booze and your pipes won't rust!  Cheers everyone!

Saturday Drinking

French press?  Why yes!
Buzzbuzzbuzzbuzzbuzzbuzzbuzz

yawn.

Drip?  A sip.
buzzbuzzbuzzbuzzbuzz

yawn.

Green tea?  for me?
buzzbuzzbuzz

yawn.

Whew, made it through the day.  Hand me a beer, willya?