Day 1 of My New Life

I'm making a change. I should probably make a lot of changes. But that's a whole other post. This change is in regards to my nutrition/lifestyle.  I met with the nutrition guy at my gym. I call him the nutrition guy because I don't think he's an actual nutritionist. But he has taken courses on nutrition and maybe he knows what he's talking about. The first rule he gave me? NO TACO BELL. He said his challenge to me was to not eat Taco Bell for the next 30 days. It made me a little sad but maybe it's for the best.
I'm going to follow the Paleo diet for the next 30 days and see how it goes. I'll modify it from there based upon what's working for me and what's not working for me.

Tonight's meal: Tarragon Turkey Burgers with Citrus Fries.  That is misleading though. They are not citrus fries. They are roasted carrots with some lemon juice and garlic. They were good. But they were NOT fries. Let's just be clear on that. The burger was good, although I think I may need to double up on the burger tomorrow at lunch.  If anyone is interested in the recipe, here ya go:

1 lb ground turkey
1 egg
a bunch of fresh tarragon
4 cloves garlic
4-5 carrots, sliced into "fry" shape
juice of 1/2 lemon

1. Place "fries" on baking sheet, sprinkle with 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic & lemon juice.  Bake @ 350 for 40 minutes or until desired firmness.
2. Mix turkey, egg, garlic & tarragon into bowl.
3. Form into patties. Place on grill pan and bake for 25 minutes.

Oh Geez, I'm Quoting Presidents.

"History and experience tell us that moral progress comes not in comfortable and complacent times, but out of trial and confusion." - Gerald Ford

I came across this quote today and it was perfect timing. I've been feeling a little overwhelmed and tired of the "I only care about me" attitude that it seems like 90% of the people I interact with seem to have. (Side note: some people I interact with seem to actually be nice, caring people.) I went in to work today, determined to adopt that same attitude. I get tired of reversing the situation and thinking about how I would feel if I were in their shoes. So I was going to do what they do - think only of myself and not care how it affects anyone else. I didn't do very well with that attitude. I probably wasn't as concerned with helping others as I typically am but I did do a few "extra" things. Mostly because I was pretty sure if I didn't do them then the people who are actually genuinely nice people would have to pick up my slack. And I didn't want them to feel the same way I'm feeling right now.
So my moral progress didn't come too far today...but tomorrow is another day.

Stuck

So I'm stuck. I am at a total loss as to what to do...things seem to be getting better here, then life rears it's ugly little head and I'm back where I was. Now, things aren't actually all that bad.
1)My friend situation isn't exactly flourishing but maybe I'm getting more ok with that. I spend a lot of time by myself but I tend to like myself better than I like other people so hanging out with me isn't so bad. It would be nice to have a friend to be able to grab a bite to eat or a drink or a movie with...but that doesn't seem to be in the cards for me. It seems as though my friends are a)not speaking to me, b)dating someone and wrapped in that, c)have no money or d)busy. I've tried reaching out to new friends but it seems to go nowhere....So I don't have a plethora of friends here but I've never really had a plethora of friends anywhere....so no big changes there.
2)My living situation is good. I like my apartment. It's a little on the small side but that means less to clean!! In Charleston, I felt like a maid was a necessity...and it kinda was with a 3 bedroom apartment. And cleaning 2.5 baths?? No thanks! Here? Easy peasy. I can get my whole apartment thoroughly cleaned in under an hour.
3) The weather. Oh the weather. Will it ever warm up here? I think the answer is no. I'd like to feel my toes.
4) My job. I like half of it. The other half is filled with a jerkface doctor. I don't know what to do about it. I don't know whether to find a new job and quit. Whether to suck it up and let myself be treated poorly. I just leave there feeling a little more beat down each day. And that's a bad feeling. But finding a new full time job is hard. It would be worth it...but I'm not sure how to go about finding a new job without my current job finding out. The dental community tends to be a small one.

So that brings us to my being stuck. I need to figure out where I want to live after August. Do I want to stay here a little bit longer? Did I really give Chicago enough of a chance? Do I want to move to NC? That's where my roots are and I could be closer to family. Charleston? Or would I end up unhappy there again? It would sure be nice if there were a clear path outlined...
What would you do if you were me?

Don't Mind If I Do!!

I went grocery shopping tonight at this new-ish grocery store that everyone raves about here. It's called Mariano's. It's similar to Whole Foods in that it's a little more "upscale" than a regular grocery store. It's similar to a regular grocery store in that they have normal brands like Kraft and Nabisco. Now a big reason that I went to this grocery store tonight was because it was a long freaking day at work. I wanted to get to the store, grab a drink and do my grocery shopping. Yes, that's right. You can drink while you grocery shop!! That's a perk that Mariano's has in common with Whole Foods....except not my Mariano's!! Horrible! Apparently they only serve beer & wine at the downtown Mariano's. Well, little do they know, I'm not easily deterred. Actually I am. But an employee there was very encouraging. Said that he's seen one or two people walking around with a six pack and drinking from that. He even opened the beer for me. I like grocery shopping - but grocery shopping with a beer? Way better!
The only downfall is impulsive shopping. But I've been sticking to paleo long enough (not really) that I didn't super crave absolutely every carb that I walked by. My big dilemma: what do I want for dinner tomorrow? It's Easter Sunday so I would like something special...but I need to get back on the paleo kick. So, shrimp scampi? I do make pretty good shrimp scampi...but that pasta. Or steamed shrimp with broccoli? Tough choice. Hope I make the right one!!

I'm A Nice Girl!!

Work has not gotten any better. It all came to a head today and well...we'll see if it gets any better. I'm trying to be optimistic and think it will...but I'm also realistic and not exactly convinced that this will be the case. I encounter nice people all the time. Most of my patients are very friendly with me. Most of my coworkers are very friendly with me. Most of my fellow gym-goers at least say hi and are friendly in the gym setting (working on outside of the gym setting...not going well there...). But right now I am so desperate for people to think I am nice, I sat and had a 10 minute conversation with the RCN tech about pretty much nothing, just normal every day things. It was while we were trying to get my cable box working and there was some downtime...but I wanted to just talk and have a normal conversation. So we talked. About the home shopping network. About how they don't outsource to India so the guy that initialized my cable just happened to have a really Indian accent but was here in America. About just normal things. It was nice. She was nice. I was nice. It was a nice conversation. I am capable of having nice conversations.

Restoring my Faith in Humanity

Wow this past weekend was rough! I feel like I'm being bullied at work by a sorta supervisor and it SUCKS. Like super sucks. I'm not sure what to do. It makes me hate going to work and one of the things that I've always liked about my job is that I really enjoy going to work. I feel like people up here are just....different. Not in a good way either. Obviously, not everyone up here is a giant jerk-face. I have met some very nice people. But it seems like most people I meet here are just not overly friendly. I've spent my time since leaving work on Saturday trying to restore my faith in humanity and to remind myself that there are nice people out there.
I went out with a girl I used to work with for St. Patricks Day...perhaps not the best day to find nice people but it wasn't horrible. I had fun at least but drunk people are not always the nicest people...but I did laugh a lot, which was a nice feeling.
Sunday was spent movie-hopping with my friend and then today - I had to temp in a different office and was totally dreading it! Which was ridic because I knew I wouldn't see Jerk-face but I was still not wanting to go in. Since I couldn't cancel, I stopped by Chick-Fil-A for some comfort food and made my way in...and it was good. Everyone was nice - the staff, the patients, everyone. My faith is somewhat restored.

Roasting a Chicken

I don't have much to say. Except that I'm roasting a chicken. Well, two chickens. But I'm only roasting two because apparently Whole Foods thinks it's cruel to pump chickens full of hormones so they get big enough. Actually, I wouldn't have bought the hormone chicken anyways. But if they'd just let the little chickens live a little bit longer they'd get to the proper size that I need.
This is the first time I've roasted a chicken since...I don't even remember. Probably in the last 5 years. I've got big plans for this chicken though.
1) It's a maple-mustard glazed chicken. It's going to taste amazing. That's the plan at least....
2) It's going to turn into Thai chicken coconut soup. That's going to be so good with the slight sweet/tangy mustardy syrup taste. So good.
3) I might get wild & crazy and make my own chicken stock with the carcass. Might. I know, that's quite ambitious. The bag of organs was not included in my tiny hormoneless chicken...which would really add to the stock. But we'll see. I don't have a lot (anything) going on tonight.

I will say, one of the things I like about doing paleo challenges is that I actually cook. I like cooking. But it's so much more convienent to swing by Taco Bell. It's probably cheaper too.