positivity

Sammy

I love Salmon. We have it at least one a week. Took some photos when I was cooking the other day. Enjoy.

Raw

Cooked

Feet Schmeet

I was looking through some pics tonight and I can see how different I look, even from December. I need to get my foot healed up and get back to working out again. I feel like I am gaining weight back I miss my Turbo Kick classes...I miss feeling good and enjoying working out.

I don't think I ever posted about my foot but basically I've been dealing with this horrific pain in my foot for over a year. It would come and go but it would really KILL me after I worked out or after a long day on my feet. I just ignored it forever, but finally it got so bad I had to go to the doc again. I found a new (better) foot doctor and he diagnosed me with a cuboid sublex. Basically a major bone in my foot was rotated or dislocated out of place causing the sharp pain all over my lateral foot. Awesome. I was glad to finally get a proper diagnosis, but I didn't realize it would take so long to "heal".

So, I've been doing physical therapy for about 5 weeks now per my doctors orders and have not been doing any of my high impact turbo kick classes or anything. I feel like blah. The foot seems to be getting better, but it's off and on. It mainly feels better when its taped up tight by my PT (I am loving the taping she does, it's such a relief). Without the tape I feel like it just gets worse. I have been wearing my running shoes (new ones) everywhere and it feels better usually with those. However, as soon as I wear normal shoes or dress shoes or try to do any major activity it usually hurts again. I hope it gets better 'cause I need to get back to the gym, STAT. 

I just hate my feet. I have the worst feet ever, always have. Structurally they are just jacked up. It's a hereditary thing they said, nothing that I did that caused it, they are just that way and it makes everything a problem. Lucky me! During PT we have been working on strengthening the muscles in my feet with all these exercises to try to create some support that my feet don't naturally have. Its getting better but I feel like an old lady with feet like these and I shouldn't!

Hope all goes well and I can get back to normal soon.

OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!

I finally got to see Obama live and in person!!!!! Lots of other famous people were there too, it was very cool! I ended up getting a free ticket to his 2012 campaign kick-off fundraiser event at Navy Pier last night. I am so grateful to have been able to attend! I was one of only 2,300 people! So exciting! I have lots of photos to edit before I post them.
Here's the video of his speech. I thought it was SO great!!!! It was inspiring and had lots of Chicago humor and lots of fun light-hearted parts. Watching it again now makes me smile. Can't believe I was there!! I love him!

Watch it! Great Speech!!

View more videos at: http://www.nbcchicago.com/?__source=embedCode.

Here's and article about the events too.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/sc-nw-obama-campaign-20110415,0,1283197.story

Lemon Bars

Tonight I made lemon bars for my friend's birthday party tomorrow evening. I had fun taking photos with my DSLR camera along the way. Fun! They turned out great! My mom's recipe...my fave. Enjoy the pics.

Favorite Things - 1st Edition

I'm borrowing this idea from some other blogs I read. I'm doing a "favorite things" post. I will try to do this every so often...depending how often I find things I like enough to write about.

So here it goes... Here are a few of my favorite things for March/April.

Nutella 

I tried it for the 1st time recently and I fell in love. I'm not a super chocolate freak, nor do I eat a lot of peanut or other nut butters, but something about this delicious hazelnut and chocolate spread is just heavenly. I bought my 1st jar and I have been eating small amounts of it with fresh fruit for dessert. Strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, pineapple...so good! This stuff would be good on just about anything.

Bananas

Ok, I know this is a strange one, but for real, bananas are like my new favorite snack. I went for years without eating bananas because I thought I didn't really like them as much as other fruit. I thought they were ok, but I just never ate them. The other day I bought one when I was in a rush for something healthy for lunch. I realized bananas aren't bad! Maybe my body is craving potassium or something, but for some reason it tasted way better than I remember (but please don't give me an over-ripe one, that still grosses me out). I like the idea of being able to grab one when I'm running out the door in the morning. Complete with their own packaging, bananas are my new purse friendly, go-to snack.

"Our Own Rub" by Pikes Place Fish Market

I found this stuff recently at Whole Foods. They were sampling it on some salmon and I had to buy it! We make salmon all the time, pretty much once a week and I was very happy with the way I made it....until I tried this stuff. It is SO good. It makes the salmon so flavorful with it's savory and slightly sweet and spicy mix of spices. I am in love with it. They have many varieties but the one we got is called "Our Own Rub" with the white lid. Look for it at your Whole Foods or you can order it here. http://www.pikeplacefish.com/Our-Own-Rub.html

I like big buns and I cannot lie

I love buns... many kinds of buns, but I especially love big buns! Obviously I am talking about hair buns! Of course my hair isn't long enough these days to create one of these fabulous buns, but I love them anyway.