I have also been really faithful with my gym trips; I went three times this week. One of them was Wednesday, when Zack and I had an hour-long session. We're working primarily on my balance and flexibility, which is rough. Pre-WLS, I had very bad balance but I always considered myself decently flexible. I could drop into a deep squat to check out DVDs on the bottom shelf at a store, for example. Since surgery I've had some neuropathy in my legs (probably due to a vitamin deficiency but I haven't had blood work done so I'm not sure) and it's impossible for me to squat that deeply anymore; it makes the back of my knees ache fiercely. However, Zack has been coming up with interesting stuff for us to do, mostly involving medicine balls and balance balls and planking and things like that that force me to be in control of my core muscles. I have gone swimming each time too; it is working wonders to unkink my muscles.
Thursday night I drove to see my beautiful sister Heather. Heather is a bigger girl too and she was actually chosen to be a featured person on a weight-loss reality show, but she had to bow out due to work obligations. However, the experience of going out there taught her lots about nutrition and new exercises, and so she and I come from different places on this. Heather and her wonderful wife Tanya grilled us a healthy dinner of steak, corn, squash, zucchini, carrots, asparagus and tomatoes, followed by swimming in their backyard pool. It's so much fun to have someone else who will eat the same healthy, small portions you do and who will hold you accountable for working out. I wish she lived closer because it would be great to get with her a few times a week to work together.
I had stopped at a tiny little roadside truck earlier in the week and picked up a big bag of fresh peaches. Summer is one of my favorite times of the year in Texas despite the brutal heat because we get a huge influx of fresh fruits and veggies, so it's so much fun to try and see what I can do with them. I decided to adapt a recipe I found for peach cake; I'm a terrible cook but I really love baking, so I thought there was a good chance it would turn out.
I basically mixed flour and Splenda, butter (I used real butter because margarine just doesn't bake as well), one egg and cinnamon to hand-press a crust, then cut up the peaches into large uneven chunks, skin still on them, and put them on top of the crust. I blended fat-free cream cheese, natural vanilla extract, another egg and a bit more Splenda to make a cream sauce, which I poured over the top of the peaches. I then topped the whole thing with more of the same mix I used for the crust and an even sprinkle of cinnamon across the top. It's not overly sweet, but it's pretty amazing. You serve it cold, although I guess you could do it warm if you wanted.
After my peach cake/cobbler hybrid thing, I took myself on a movie date to see The Purge at the dollar theater. Most of my friends didn't like it, but I enjoyed it. The only thing that amazed me was that several people brought their children; it was the middle of the day on a weekday so I thought I'd be safe, but there were crying and babbling toddlers around me for most of the film. I get very twitchy about that, particularly when it's a movie about gratuitous, condoned ultra-violence.
After The Purge, I came home and decided to make a recipe from my favorite blog in the world. The owner, Shelly, is a weight-loss surgery patient who now creates recipes and blogs about post-WLS fitness. I have been craving something savory, so I decided to try her 'pizza meatloaf', which is amazing. I even did a few substitutions on her recipe which I think made it even healthier; I used turkey pepperoni instead of regular, fat-free mozzarella chunks, left out the bruschetta sauce, and when I soaked the bread crumbs, I used my protein-inflused lactose-free milk instead of regular milk. I wish people could've smelled my house when they were baking... it was insanely delicious. I still have plenty of leftovers, too; I may try mashing half a sweet potato tomorrow to get some complex carbs in there as well as make it all comfort-foody.
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This was a terrifically awesome, fun weekend!
It was my first Saturday off from filming in a long time, so despite very kind invites from my best friends asking me to come to Dallas to hang out, I abstained. Instead I got up early on Saturday morning and headed to the Downtown Farmer's Market; it's the first time I've been able to make it, and boy am I excited! I want to make this a weekly thing as soon as filming is done! The market stretches to include a lot of vendor booths from local farms, slaughterhouses, cheesemakers and more offering local, organic produce and artisanal foods. There are also food trucks and concession booths with delicious fresh offerings. It's a dog-friendly place so lots of people brought their furry companions and I got to see some real beauties, including an Irish Wolfhound that was taller than his owner when he got up on his hind legs!
Fresh ripe watermelons!
Amazing waffles with ridiculous topping options... left to right, strawberries and bananas; eggs, bacon and homemade sausage, butter and organic maple syrup. YUM!
The lovely Wolfhound!
The highlight of my morning, however, was a man who owns a pest-control business here in town. He has a stunning German shepherd that is one of the best-behaved and well-trained dogs I've ever seen, and when he walked past me I had to do a double-take when I saw what was riding on his shoulder... He takes in orphaned and displaced baby raccoons and raises them until they're old enough to go to the zoo or an animal sanctuary! This little tyke is eight weeks old and was amazing... it was having a blast meeting people and 'sampling' all of the wares from the booths!
I purchased hand-ground peanut butter (no sugar added, it's literally just peanuts, oil and salt), a fresh cheese spread called "Leopard Spread" from a local cheese house, made of extra-sharp cheddar, cream cheese, peppers and spices, and some grass-fed beef tamales. I also sampled a delicious hibiscus-berry lemonade, which I will be buying a gallon of when I make it back to the market; it was tasty, refreshing, and sweetened with just a pinch of raw sugar. I enjoyed my treat on the bank of the river, enjoying the beautiful day even though it was stiflingly hot.
After the morning at the market I headed to the flea market a few streets over, where I browsed a lot of foreign knock-off designer clothes, cowboy boots and hats, and Tejana mixtapes. Our flea market used to consist of people with booths of paperback books, racks of vintage clothing, and tons of odds and ends, but lately it's become a place for cheap imitation sunglasses and bootleg CDs, or people who buy all of the DVDs from a video store going out of business and then come here to resell them. It's a sad state of affairs and makes for boring browsing, but you never know. I snagged a primo parking space and wandered with my Powerade Zero, trying to stay hydrated in the sweltering sunlight. I wound up finding a booth run by an older Nigerian man who had a lot of vintage camera equipment; he had rented one of the permanent 'storage building' spaces and was using it as a sort of mobile photo studio, full of backdrops, props and more. For a nominal fee he would shoot people in a variety of poses with props and costumes. While I'm not sure how that business model works out for him, he had a very nice travel hardcase with foam inserts and a vintage Canon lens I was interested in, so we chatted cameras for awhile and then I offered him twenty bucks for both, which he accepted. The case alone probably retailed for close to $75 so I feel pretty good about the deal. I needed one anyway, it'll help me transport my stuff safely to LA this fall!
Speaking of LA, I have several exciting vacations coming up. In September I'm flying to Indianapolis to help my friend Shae volunteer at the world-famous HorrorHound convention. Then in October I'm flying to Columbus, Ohio to see 30 Seconds to Mars play a show. I've been a huge fan of theirs since 2005 and I have never had the opportunity to see them live, and of course on this US tour they aren't coming anywhere near Texas. So I decided to go ahead and splurge and make it an 'event'; I bought a sidestage ticket so that I can watch from the wings instead of in the completely-insane crowd, and I get a meet and greet and professional photo with the band, among other perks. Worth it to see an incredible band who, by all accounts and things I've seen, are some of the best live performers out there. Later in October I'm flying to Los Angeles the same way I do every year; one of my best friends Stephanie lives out there and we always do a lot of fun Halloween things together to celebrate our favorite holiday. One such thing is Universal Studios, where we attend Halloween Horror Nights. I can't wait for this year to see what mazes they're going to announce!
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