Day 238: (Week 34) Chicken and Shrimp Green Fry

316.2; -1.8 pounds this week; 32.8 total pounds lost

What a feeling it is to be over that thirty pound milestone. It means that I've actually lost at least 30 pounds, and that extra goody someday won't tip me over and put me back in the 20's. 'And I will never go back.

I made up a delicious recipe a few months ago that we're having again tonight. It's a stir fry and I usually view stir frys as a casserole. Just put in whatever and it's good! Tonight's stir fry is:

Chicken and Shrimp Green Fry

2 heads of bok choy

2 cups of spinach

1 head of cabbage

2 broccoli crowns

2 celery sticks

8 baby carrots

1 yellow onion

1 can of water chess nuts

1 pound of chicken breast

30 pre-cooked sprimp without the tail

ginger

garlic

olive oil

4 TBSP stir fry sauce

I'm no gourmet chef or anything so forgive my rudimentary cooking skills and methods, but what I do is put about 2-3 TBSP olive oil, about 1TBSP each garlic and ginger in a pre-heated wok. I let that get hot so the olive oil runs in the pan like water. I chop up the onion, carrots, and celery and saute them in the oil, making sure to stir it frequently to avoid burning (because smoking olive oil is no good!). I dice up the chicken and add to the wok. Once the onions are browned and the chicken is no longer pink, I chop up the bok choy, spinach, broccoli, and cabbage and add it to the wok with about 1/2 cup water, and put a lid over the wok (doesn't need to fit, just fit over the vegetables and sitting on top of it is what I do). I let the greens wilt. This takes about 10-20 minutes (I think--haven't done this for a while!). Add water as needed but not so that it's wet--just to prevent burning. When the greens are wilted, I add the water chess nuts, shrimp, and stir fry sauce and stir until it's evenly coated and heated. This deliciousness is spread on a bed of brown rice and dinner is served. It usually makes about 4 servings depending on how much green I put in, depending on what greens needs to be used, etc.

Now that your palates are salivating, after I make it tonight I will update this recipe and re-post the exact way I did it. This had got to be one of my favourite healthy Chinese dinners that I know how to cook (albeit poorly, it tastes amazing!).

Dessert tonight will be either a frozen strawberry fruit bar, or a frozen peach and white tea fruit bar. I've been having them over the weekend, and they are soooo good!

So, healthy dinner and dessert planned...check!

"Just for today," I'll make a better choice--32.8 pounds later and I think it's safe to say it's working. ;)

-e

Day 237: These Are The Weekends

This has been the first weekend free from worry and stress, anxiety, and panic. Of course I'm talking about house stuff again. Do I have any other life at the moment?

We've had a lazy weekend full of nothing but games, church, and family time. These are the weekends we're looking forward to when there's no worry if our house will sell. These are the weekends that will be filled with a whole lot of whatever we want to do. These are the weekends we've been working so hard for.

These are the weekends we love.

Day 232-Day 236: Almost Sold

As it stands we're still waiting on the conditions to come off our house to insure it's really "sold." The waiting is horrible. All I want to do is start phoning all the utilities we need changed over, and forwarding the mail. I don't dare until we're sold. What a mess it would be to have no heat because I couldn't wait.

I went through the preliminary walk through of our new house on Thursday. The previous night, knowing Andrew couldn't be there during work hours on Thursday with me, we went through and tagged 48 things that needed to be addressed, from dents or scratches that needed to be gone over to the cigarette burn in our windowsill. sigh

We are NON-SMOKERS yet our brand new, "never-been-lived-in-house" has a nice little cigarette burn mark on the spare bedroom windowsill. We were both livid. Here we thought we were buying brand new, and hundreds of thousands of dollars later we're going to be moving in to a home that on this day, appeared "used." Not impressed. Luckily it didn't smell, but after that burn everything we saw lost it's new feeling.

On the walk though the burn was addressed. As with many things, the inspector was pointing things out to me that Andrew and I had spoke of the night before. This was interesting! We thought our house was going to be what we saw then, but Shane assured us this was the "rough draft" and the reason why we have the preliminary walk through weeks before possession date--so they have an opportunity to go throughout the house and pick out the details that need to come up to the standard they pride themselves on. These trade workers are just workers, contracted to work for Shane. So Shane, from my understanding, goes through with a fine tooth comb, and picks out everything that needs to be changed. Apparently on February 26th, 3 weeks from now, we'll be going in to our new home on final inspection and possession day, and seeing the house as we'll move in, appearing brand new, and never been used before.

I would be skeptical of their optimism for priding themselves on this standard we weren't introduced to on the prelim inspection if it weren't for inspector who also pointed out things that Andrew and I missed (how could that be?!). I now have faith that things will be taken care of--every detail. The project manager walked through with us too, and addressed the cigarette burn issue. He said that person who was smoking and left his evidence has been "severely dealt with." Although I don't want to see anyone lose his job over a mistake (we're all human), I hope he understands that rules were meant for a reason and he must follow them. He jeopardized our impression, time, labour, and money. "Ooops" is a bit of an understatement.

'Looking forward to the final draft in 3 weeks. Praying the home inspection on this house passes to make that happen.

This week, although not really busy with labour intensive work on the house, was busy none-the-less. I did, however, work out EVERYDAY which I'm very proud of. Hopefully I did enough to reflect great numbers next Monday. I have a little goal with my trainer that I'll lose another 19 pounds before I see my family again so I can go tell them I've lost 50 pounds (a sort of milestone number). I'm working a bit more having exercised everyday this week, but I can always step up my game. I have 7 weeks. Ms. says nutrition will be key to attaining this goal. This is my challenge and I'm so excited to beat it!

e

Monday--60 minute step and pump class

Tuesday--25 minutes walk/jog on treadmill: 2 min @3.4 to 1.5 min @4.2; 60 minutes personal training

Wednesday--40 minutes walk/jog at the dog park IN THE SNOW: approx 3 min walk to 1 min jog

Thursday--60 minute personal training

Friday--25 min walk/jog on treadmill: 2.5 min @3.4 to 1 min @4.2; 60 minutes hatha yoga

Day 231: (Week 33) A Nice Surprise

318.0 pounds; -1 pound this week; 31 pounds lost total

As if by magic, here the Lord blesses us with a nice surprise. Andrew went in to work this morning and wouldn't you know...in his email was an offer from our Realtor.

After a few counter-offers we came to a deal. Our Realtor came by the house tonight and at 6:15pm we entered into the agreement, our home c/s, and waiting for conditions to be lifted in 9 days on February 10th! The only conditions were standard--buyer financing and passing the home inspection. Sometime this week, the house has to stay in perfect condition for the home inspection and after the 10th, we go to our builder and sign a change of possession. Our new house is basically ready already. When we sign the change, we'll be moving in a little over 3 weeks on February 26th.

From start to conditional finish, our sale took 3.5 days. FAST! We've been worried about selling as we must take possession of our new house by April 29th, but having everything fall into place puts us in our new home 2 months earlier than we expected--just in time to celebrate Andrew's birthday, and have many hockey play-off BBQ's.

One thing I can say for sure about selling a house is if you want it to sell fast, it doesn't have to be the cheapest property on the block. Out of 3 homes on our street, we were in the middle--not cheapest, not most expensive. I'm certain what sold us was the fact that we were the best house on the block. I'm patting myself on the back a little here, but our house is move-in ready. It was staged beautifully and made the buyers feel that they can just come in and live without having to change so many things to make it comfortable. This was the market we were aiming for, this is the market that bought. We made enough money to be satisfied with accepting the offer, and I believe all will be happy with everyone's decisions. So if you want to sell fast, sell AT market, and make sure your home feels move in ready. This is how we sold in 3.5 days. Be willing and ready to accept a little less than you listed for, as everyone tries to get the best deal and it's pretty standard. Oh, and pray A LOT. Have faith, the Lord is on your side.

We've been so blessed throughout this whole process. Yes, we've had many days without the gym, almost every night of fast food, but we're making good decisions along the way and working our tails off getting this house ready. It's all about balance. I've come to terms with not being able to make it to the gym and that painting and cleaning is workout enough. Hey, I even lost a pound this week just working hard on the house. I can't complain. Life happens and you need to be flexible. Selling our house gave me a crash course in this lesson.

I did make it to the gym anyway today, as I went I had no idea we had the offer yet. I came home and got the good news from Andrew. You just fit the good things in to your life, making it your lifestyle. It can be done no matter what obstacles get in the way. Believe me, this has been one of the most stressful times in my life. I'm still managing to change my body. This gives me so much personal strength. Life is good. What a nice surprise.

-Meals

1 chicken taco

1 cup skim milk

3 cups water

2 pieces sourdough toast

1 tbsp peanut butter

1 orange

2 cups of water

6 cheese puffs

2 cups of water

4 slices frozen pizza

2 cups of water

-Exercise

60 minute step and pump class

-Notes

Like I said, eating has been mostly fast food, or convenience foods. I had a good talk with my personal trainer about better choices out, eating just the chicken and veg in a chicken burger, eating a salad with just a little dressing, etc. I am not perfect and have been eating crap, but at least it's not a LOT of crap right? I guess no, but it is what it is. I'm not the perfect example of health. I'm a darn good example of being self-aware and trying though. I can't beat myself up over that now can I? I will try better this week though. I'm craving real vegetables!

Day 227-Day 230: Busy

These days have been filled with busyness. I fell under the weather a day or two before and so that was hampering all our progress on the house. We signed with the Realtor last Saturday and hadn't formally put the house on the market because we still needed to paint a few doors and clean out the basement so you could at least walk in it. After mornings of going back to bed after taking Andrew to the train, I would get up enough strength to paint one door or to pack one box. I'm not sure what struck me--maybe my immune system was just fed up with the late nights, early mornings, and constant stress companion. It just gave up. I finally started feeling better a few days later and was able to finish the house. We finally called our Realtor and told him no matter what, list us Friday, fully knowing that someone might come for a showing at any time and we had to be ready.

Friday morning came around and I was up early. Outside I heard a truck stop by our house, and sure enough 7am, our for sale sign was posted.

We had one showing Saturday afternoon, and one Sunday evening. Each day I spent 2 hours cleaning the house top to bottom, even when it didn't need it, I still dusted off any particle that might be seen edge-ways. I made sure to wipe the condensation off the windows, and mark perfect vacuum lines on the still new carpet.

No offers came in after the showings, but then again what was I expecting? A miracle offer immediately after the showing? I had to be realistic and at least wait for them to sleep on it. After spending the hour during Sunday's showing at the dog park in -10 Celsius weather, I was ready to be home, warmed up with hot chocolate, and have an end to the showings for the weekend. It's been stressfully busy, but we survived.