First time Indian Food experience

Today was our first time at an Indian Restaurant.

For so long I've been wanting to try Indian food but I've always been somewhat afraid of trying it being that it'd be a new experience and not didn't know what to expect.  So finally we decided to try a local place here in Cincinnati, the Indian Bistro.

I didn't get a chance to take pictures but one...

What is this?  Delicious!

Don't ask me what I ate though.  I didn't get a chance to write down what was on my plate.

Now I was hoping to avoid the buffet and order from the menu but as soon as we were seated we were asked if we were going for the buffet.  And being that we were new to this new food experience, I had to say yes immediately.

Nonetheless, it was very delicious.  Looking forward to going back soon.

No More XXLs

Frances keeps telling me that my clothes are too big on me and I agree (even though I keep telling her they're fine).  See, for a very long time, I kept buying XXL clothes.  But thanks to our new healthier diet lifestyle, I feel much better wearing the few XL clothes I have left.  Sure, they do still look a bit big on me, but they sure don't look as big as my XXL shirts and sweaters.

I left my pants out of this for now.

So how many shirts/sweaters do I have left, you ask?

     Sweaters:  24... 14 (donating 10)
     Polos:  17... 9 (donating 8)
     Dress Shirts:  20... 4 (donating 16)
     T-Shirts:   40... 21 (donating 19)

I was thinking of selling them on eBay but being that I already had some items of clothing on there and wouldn't sell, I decided it would be too costly to put them on there.
    

No Facebook for a week and/or until Easter.

I tried to challenge myself to not log onto Facebook for a week and I did it.  That included no sharing or liking pages.  However, being that I started on Ash Wednesday, I'm trying to make it until Easter.

It hasn't been difficult just at times out of habit while bored at work I'd try to log on my phone; once I realized I was logged off completely I would remember.

I've been fine for a week.  I'm sure I'll be fine until Easter.  As Frances said, I haven't missed much.  But don't worry if you want to add me now, I'll respond soon.

Valentine's Day 2013

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone (Happy Belated Valentine's if you're reading after the 14th).

About a week or two ago I was told I would be working this week during the day shift to train for some other products so I figured our Valentine's Day would be pushed back to the weekend.  Thankfully my training was pushed to about a month from now which was perfect, now I was able to plan a nice day for us even though Frances had to work.

First order of business:  I made her breakfast in bed, which I've been wanting to do for a long time (see my Day Zero Project.)  For breakfast I made French Toast... well sort of.

She watched this in bed while I made breakfast

French Toast & "Abuelita" Hot Chocolate

Making Mexican Hot Chocolate first

French Toast Kabobs for breakfast...

... with a side of Cinnamon Rolls

Josh Groban is joining the party

Breakfast in bed for my lady

Afterwards she had to leave for work so later in the day before she would come home I prepped our dinner.

First our sauce which'll come in later

 

Sautee garlic for a few seconds

Add asparagus...

... And then some Mushrooms

After removing the veggies, time to cook some of the shrimp

Nice and brown

Making room for the sauce

Re Add the veggies

Chopping up some cilantro...

... and add to the rice

Dinner is cooked

Coconut Shrimp with Garlic with a glass of St. Gisbertus Pomegranate & Lime Cocktail

 

No Longer a Fan of Buttered Popcorn Smell

It's been a very successful month with our Vegan Project.  I myself am happy to experience foods that include others items aside from the norm.  I'm also very happy at my results, going from 255 lbs in March of last year, which was my heaviest, to 204.2 lbs as of this morning.

So what have I learned:

1.  Going Vegan is not easy.  It requires change.  For one the biggest challenge is converting to not only avoiding meat but also one has to give up any type of meat products such as eggs, milk, cheeses, etc.  I wouldn't exactly say what we eat is limited but we do have to adjust to other alternatives.

2.  I can't be a Vegan forever.  To be honest, I absolutely love this new change but I'm not going to change it all.  After all, I still do enjoy a nice, juicy steak.  And I think it'd be rude to deny foods all the time.  My biggest challenge would be when going back home to see our families (good thing there were no family events in January).  Plus going vegan does require giving up more than food such as watching what one wears.  Nonetheless we have decided to keep as much of this food lifestyle as long as possible with the exceptions of visiting others or date nights and so forth.

3.  I have the (will)power.  I love junk food, especially chocolates.  Now since we started this new healthier lifestyle almost a year ago I diminished a lot of fast food and candies and chips and soda.  However every once in a while I'd go to the dollar store on my breaks and get me a chocolate bar or swipe my card in the vending machine(s) at work.  However that had to stop January first being that I was afraid of breaking my promise.  It wasn't until a few days ago that I finally had the "courage" to swipe my card, but not before going on Google and looking up what's safe.  My options (at work) were limited to Skittles, Twizzlers and pretzels.  In this whole month I'm happy to say I've only had two packs of Twizzlers, spending a whopping $1.80.

I was telling Frances just a few days ago that while I eating my lunch at work there was a co-worker popping popcorn behind me.  As it kept popping and popping and as the smell got stronger I realized, "I don't like it".  I never thought I'd say that but I really disliked it.  Now I'm taking a wild guess here but I imagine it was extra butter popcorn but maybe I'm in denial and defending her and the popcorn.

Also that same day while checking the news online I saw that many people had gotten sick from meat.  It's funny what one realizes when making certain changes.

--

So a few days ago I created a small post (as well as posted on Facebook) that I'm looking for books to read so if anyone can suggest something to read, anything and any type of book, just leave me a comment so I can look for it at my local libary.

 (no that's not a misspelling.  I did that on purpose)